Comparative aesthetics compares the aesthetic concepts and practices of different cultures. This anthology of essays by internationally recognized scholars brings together some of the most important research in comparative aesthetics, from classic early essays to previously unpublished contemporary pieces. Ranging across cultures and time periods, the essays reveal both similarities and differences between various aesthetic traditions.

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.