‎'‎Pain and pleasure are simple ideas‎,‎ incapable of definition‎.‎‎'‎ In 1757 the 27‎-year‎-old Edmund Burke argued that our aesthetic responses are experienced as pure emotional arousal‎,‎ unencumbered by intellectual considerations‎.‎ In so doing he overturned the Platonic tradition in aesthetics that had prevailed from antiquity until the eighteenth century‎,‎ and replaced metaphysics with psychology and even physiology as the basis for the subject‎.‎ Burke‎'‎s theory of beauty encompasses the female form‎,‎ nature‎,‎ art‎,‎ and poetry‎,‎ and he analyses our delight in sublime effects that thrill and excite us‎.‎ His revolution in method continues to have repercussions in the aesthetic theories of today‎,‎ and his revolution in sensibility has paved the way for literary and artistic movements from the Gothic novel through Romanticism‎,‎ twentieth‎-century painting‎,‎ and beyond‎.‎ In this new edition Paul Guyer conducts the reader through Burke‎'‎s Enquiry‎,‎ focusing on its place in the history of aesthetics and highlighting its innovations‎,‎ as well as its influence on many subsequent authors from Kant and Schiller to Ruskin and Nietzsche‎.‎ ABOUT THE SERIES‎:‎ For over 100 years Oxford World‎'‎s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe‎.‎ Each affordable volume reflects Oxford‎'‎s commitment to scholarship‎,‎ providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features‎,‎ including expert introductions by leading authorities‎,‎ helpful notes to clarify the text‎,‎ up‎-to‎-date bibliographies for further study‎,‎ and much more‎.‎