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This is a critical introduction to modern French philosophy, commissioned from one of the liveliest contemporary practitioners and intended for an English-speaking readership. The dominant 'Anglo-Saxon' reaction to philosophical development in France has for some decades been one of suspicion, occasionally tempered by curiosity but more often hardening into dismissive rejection. But there are signs now of a more sympathetic interest and an increasing readiness to admit and explore shared concerns, even if these are still expressed in a very different idiom and intellectual context. Vincent Descombes offers here a personal guide to the main movements and figures of the last forty-five years. He traces over this period the evolution of thought from a generation preoccupied with the 'three H's' - Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger, to a generation influenced since about 1960 by the 'three masters of suspicion' - Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. In this framework he deals in turn with the thought of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, the early structuralists, Foucault, Althusser, Serres, Derrida, and finally Deleuze and Lyotard. The 'internal' intellectual history of the period is related to its institutional setting and the wider cultural and political context which has given French philosophy so much of its distinctive character

This volume offers a lively and accessible guide to some of the major issues current in French philosophy today and to some of the figures who are or have been influential in shaping its development. The collection is unusual and interesting in bringing together a range of contributors from both Britain and France, and is intended not only for professional philosophers but also for those with a more general interest in the French intellectual scene.

Philosophy plays an integral role in French society, affecting its art, drama, politics, and culture. In this chronological survey, Eric Matthews traces the development French philosophy has taken in the twentieth century, from it roots in the thoughts of Descartes to key figures such as Bergson, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and the recent French Feminists.

A collection of influential texts in Mexican philosophy, representing a period of Mexican thought and culture beginning with the Mexican Revolution and culminating in la filosofía de lo mexicano. The editors' Introduction highlights the significance of this tradition as one that took seriously the question of Mexican national identity as a philosophical question.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Translators' Introduction -- PART I. -- Introduction -- 1 First Crossings of the Rhine -- 2 The Sartre Bomb -- 3 Postwar Fascinations -- 4 Humanism in Turmoil -- 5 The Bright Spell of the '50s -- 6 Renewed Polemics, New Shifts -- 7 Dissemination or Reconstruction? -- 8 Death and Transfiguration? -- 9 The Letter and the Spirit -- 10 The Return of the Repressed? -- 11 Between Erudite Scholarship and Techno-Science -- 12 At the Crossroads -- Conclusion -- PART II. INTERVIEWS -- Françoise Dastur: Interview of March 3, 2000 -- Jacques Derrida: Interviews of July 1 and November 22, 1999 -- Éliane Escoubas: Interview of October 19, 2000 -- Jean Greisch: Interview of December 2, 1999 -- Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: Interview of June 22, 2000 -- Jean-Luc Marion: Interview of December 3, 1999 -- Jean-Luc Nancy: Interview of June 23, 2000 -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.