A clear and comprehensive account of the history of French philosophy in the twentieth century.
Part I. The Philosophers of the Third Republic (1890-1940): 1. Fin-de-siècle: the professors of the republic; 2. Science and idealism; 3. Bergson; 4. Between the wars; Part II. The Reign of Existential Phenomenology (1940-60): 5. Sartre; 6. Beauvoir; 7. Merleau-Ponty; Part III. Structuralism and Beyond (1960-90): 8. The structuralist invasion; 9. Foucault; 10. Derrida; 11. Philosophies of difference; 12. Fin-de-siècle again: le temps retrouvé?; Conclusion: the philosophy of freedom; Appendix: philosophy and the French educational system.