Continental philosophy, as it has emerged in the twentieth century, is less a seamless fabric than a patchwork quilt of diverse strands. Phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, structuralism, critical theory, deconstruction--these are some of the salient movements which have developed in continental Europe between 1900 and the 1990s, though their influence is by no means confined to geographical location. Continental thought has proved highly exportable, circulating far beyond the frontiers of Europe to provoke strong responses in the intellectual world at large. The fifteen articles in this volume outline and assess some of the issues and experiments of continental philosophy. The first five span the twin movements of phenomenology and existentialism, running from Husserl and Heidegger to Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Levinas. Subsequent essays deal with specific currents of continental thought in such areas as science, Marxism, linguistics, politics, aesthetics, feminism an hermeneutics. A final chapter on postmodernism highlights the manner in which so many concerns of continental thought culminate in a radical anti-foundationalism. This volume provides a broad, scholarly introduction to this period for students of philosophy and related disciplines, as well as some original interpretation of these authors. It includes a glossary of technical terms and a chronological table of philosophical, scientific and other cultural events.

1. The beginnings of phenomenology: Husserl and his predecessors Richard Cobb-Stevens , Boston College 2. Philosophy of existence 1: Heidegger Jacques Taminiaux , University of Louvain, Belgium 3. Philosophy of existence 2: Sartre Thomas Flynn , Emory University 4. Philosophy of existence 3: Merleau-Ponty Bernard Cullen , Queen's University, Belfast 5. Philosophies of religion: Jaspers, Marcel, Levinas William Desmond , Loyola College 6. Philosophies of science: Mach, Duhem, Bachelard Babette Babich , Fordham University 7. Philosophies of Marxism: Gramsci, Lukacs, Benjamin, Althusser Michael Kelly , University of Southampton 8. Critical theory: from Adorno to Habermas David Rasmussen , Boston College 9. Hermeneutics: Gadamer, Ricoeur Gary Madison , McMaster University 10. Italian idealism and after: Croce, Gentile, Vattimo Giacomo Rinaldi , University of Urbino, Italy 11. French structuralism and after: Barthes, Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, Foucault Hugh Silverman , State University of New York at Stony Brook 12. French feminism and after: de Beauvoir, Kristeva, Irigaray, Cixious Alison Ainley , Oxford Brookes University 13. Deconstruction Simon Critchley , Essex University 14. Derrida Timothy Mooney , Essex University 15. Postmodernist theory: Lyotard, Baudrillard Thomas Docherty , Trinity College, Dublin