Western Sculpture: Definitions of Man provides a broad overview of the history and significance of Western sculpture, exploring how sculptural form and human representation have expressed cultural conceptions of humanity across time. Butler draws on art historical examples and theoretical reflections to analyze how sculpture embodies ideas about human nature, society and creativity, engaging with philosophical inquiries into what sculpture can reveal about our understanding of the human figure and its symbolic typologies in Western art. In Western Sculpture: Definitions of Man, Ruth?Butler traces the development of Western sculpture from its classical origins to more modern expressions, examining how different periods and artists have conceptualized and represented the human figure. The discussion combines formal analysis of sculptural works, contextual historical interpretation and thematic exploration of how sculpture functions as cultural articulation of human identity and values, reflecting shifts in artistic practice, patronage, philosophical assumptions and social contexts. Her analysis addresses the evolving relationship between material, technique and meaning in sculpture, and how artists from antiquity through the Renaissance to the modern era have used the medium to define, question and reinterpret what it means to be human. Ruth Butler (1931-2024) was an American art historian and academic, widely recognized for her scholarship on sculpture, particularly 19th century French sculpture and broader Western sculptural traditions; she taught art history at the University of Maryland and the University of Massachusetts Boston, and authored several important works including Western Sculpture: Definitions of Man (1975), as well as influential studies on Auguste Rodin and European sculpture, blending rigorous historical research with insightful formal analysis.