The Continuum Companion to Aesthetics offers the definitive guide to contemporary aesthetics. The book covers all the most pressing and important themes and categories in the field - areas that have continued to attract interest historically as well as topics that have emerged more recently as active areas of research. Seventeen specially commissioned essays from an international team of experts reveal where important work continues to be done in the area and, most valuably, the exciting new directions the field is taking. Prefaced by a historical introduction highlighting the key figures and tracing the development of the central terms in the field, the Companion explores new issues pertaining to contemporary art forms, as well as tackling traditional questions in well-established art forms with the insight of new disciplines such as evolutionary psychology and other areas of cognitive science. Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including a chronology, a detailed list of resources and a fully annotated bibliography, this is the essential reference tool for anyone working in aesthetics.