The Pursuit of Comparative Aesthetics An Interface Between the East and West

Comparative aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which compares the aesthetic concepts and practices of different cultures. The way in which cultures conceive of the aesthetic dimension of life in general and art in particular is revelatory of profound attitudes and beliefs which themselves make up an important part of the culture in question. This anthology of essays by internationally recognised scholars in this field brings into one volume some of the most important research in comparative aesthetics, from classic early essays to previously unpublished contemporary pieces. Ranging across cultures and time periods as diverse as ancient Greece, India and China and the modern West and Japan, the essays reveal both similarities and deep differences between the aesthetic traditions concerned. In the course of these expositions and comparisons there emerges the general conclusion that no culture can be fully grasped if its aesthetic ideas are not understood.

Contents: Introduction; The aesthetic pleasure of tragedy in Western and Indian thought, Chantal Maillard; Schopenhauer's aesthetics seen from the Buddhist point of view, Moon-hwan Kim; The concept of purification in the Greek and Indian theories of drama, Keijo Virtanen; A comparative study of Greek and Indian poetics and aesthetics: their philosophical, physiological and medicinal background, Ramendra Kumar Sen; Interactions between Western and Chinese aesthetics, Wang Keping; Chinese aesthetics and Kant, Karl-Heinz Pohl; The importance of Chinese philosophy for Western aesthetics, Herbert Mainusch; Confucian and Western aesthetics: a brief comparative study, Hsin Kwan-chue; Agriculture as the image of aesthetics and ethics: a comparative view, Mara Miller; Scenic national landscapes: common themes in Japan and the United States, Yuriko Saito; Japanese aesthetics and some Western analogues, Allan Casebier; Freedom and formula: an inter-cultural problem of Western and Japanese aesthetics, Peter Leech; Phenomenological method in the explanation of Japanese aesthetic concepts, Mark Meli; Index.

Mazhar Hussain, is Associate Professor at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University India. Robert Wilkinson is Deputy Director at the Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies at The Open University, UK. He was formerly Head of Philosophy for the Open University.