Educated at the universities of York (BA) and Cambridge (PhD), Aaron Ridley has taught at UCNW Bangor, Ithaca College, NY, and, since 1994, the University of Southampton, where he is Professor of Philosophy. His chief research interests are aesthetics, especially musical aesthetics, and the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, and his books include Music, Value and the Passions (1995), Nietzsche's Conscience: Six Character Studies from the 'Genealogy' (1998), The Philosophy of Music: Theme and Variations (2004), Nietzsche on Art (2007), The Deed is Everything: Nietzsche on Will and Action (2018), and Singularities: Essays in Aesthetics (2024).