Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Introducing Aesthetics

As a historical and systematic survey of philosophies of the arts, this book provides descriptive analyses of the most significant and influential art forms which help to define European culture, past and present: literature, drama, music, architecture, sculpture and painting. They are considered in relation to theories of art, aesthetic theories, and poetics, which have emerged from the human need to reflect upon the arts in order to discover their nature, value and social and cultural roles. This book combines a history of Europe’s philosophical systems; a history of Europe’s aesthetic and poetic theories and explanatory descriptions of the major European arts, both in their current forms and as they have developed from their beginnings to the present.