Abstract

Derrida is the last in the long tradition of recalcitrant French intellectuals, stretching from Rousseau, through Sartre, to Foucault. Typically, he disagrees with all his predecessors. His close philosophical scrutiny led him to formulate the notion of 'deconstruction'. According to Derrida, this 'should seek a new investigation of responsibility, questioning the codes inherited from ethics and politics'. These witty and informative guides cover the lives and ideas of the major philosophers. Award-winning author Paul Strathern's concise and easily comprehensible style highlights the major advances in philosophy, as well as the men who conceived them and the times in which they lived. Packed with striking quotes, insights and anecdotes, the aim of the Virgin Philosophers Series is to clarify the mysteries of philosophy for the general reader.