对于西方现代思想而言，《美学意识形态》提供了一种美学史以及对美学概念的批判。开篇论述的对象为夏夫兹博里、休谟和伯克，尤其关注德国哲学传统，他对从黑格尔、马克思至本雅明、阿多诺、哈贝马斯的黑格尔学派以及从叔本华、克尔凯郭尔、尼采至海德格尔、福柯的反黑格尔学派尤为感兴趣。应该说，它是对西方现代哲学的一次考察，着重讨论了自启蒙运动以来至后现代主义期间美学、伦理学和政治学之间错综复杂的关系。伊格尔顿对这些问题的探究是杰出的、发人深省的，可与其书中所论述到的康德、席勒、叔本华、克尔凯郭尔、马克思、尼采、弗洛伊德、海德格尔、卢卡奇、阿多诺、哈贝马斯等人比肩。在伊格尔顿多本论述文学理论与马克思主义美学的作品中，本书视角独到，以思想明确和立场清晰而独具一格，是学术论述的典范。综观其研究范围、道德及政治立场，本书可称得上是特里伊格尔顿的代表性著作。（For the modern ideas of the West, this book provides a history of aesthetics and a critique of the aesthetic concept. In the opening part, it expounds Shaftesbury, David Hume and Edmund Burke, with particular focus on the German philosophy tradition. The author is particularly interested in the Hegel school of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno and Habermas, and in the school against Hegel of Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault. It should be mentioned that this book looks at the modern philosophy of the West, and focuses on the intricate relations between aesthetics, ethics and politics during the period from the Enlightenment Movement to the post-modernism.Terry Eagleton's exploration of these issues is eminent and thought-provoking, and he can be comparable to such Immanuel Kant, Egon Leo Adolf Schiele, Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Ceorg Lukacs, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, Habermas as described in this book. Among Eagleton's works that deal with literature theory and Marxist aesthetics, this book is unique for clear ideas and definite positions and can serve as the model of academic exposition. After surveying his study scope, morality and political position, we can find that this book deserves to be called the representative work of Eagleton.）