William R. Schroeder is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Sartre and His Predecessors (1984) and co-editor, with Simon Critchley, of A Companion to Continental Philosophy (Blackwell, 1998).

"Schroeder has a masterful command of the Continental tradition after Kant in European philosophy. He presents a comprehensive critical introduction to the philosophers who have shaped it, in an admirably clear and concise idiom that is readily accessible to academics, students, and general readers alike."—Richard Schacht, University of Illinois"This is an enormously impressive work. In the fashion of a panoramic mosaic, it assembles incisive analyses of the host of thinkers who comprise the 'Continental Tradition' in philosophy. Like no other book before it, it succeeds not only in helping us to understand the past, but also defines an array of future tasks that those working in this field will have to address."—Frithjof Bergmann, University of Michigan"Schroeder captures Continental philosophy's complex trajectory in clear and thoughtful language. Along the way, he offers provocative challenges to many of its central figures."—Todd May, Clemson University

• Acknowledgments ixPreface xIntroduction 1Descartes 1Empiricism and the Rise of Science 4Rationalism 7The French Enlightenment 8Challenges to the Enlightenment: Rousseau and Romanticism 11Kant 16Problems with Kant’s System 20Fichte 23Schelling 25Hölderlin, Novalis, and Schiller 281 Hegel 30Core Contributions 30Life 32The Phenomenology of Spirit 33Philosophy of History 41Politics and Ethics 44Aesthetics 47Philosophy of Mind 50The Preface to the Phenomenologyas a Transition to the System 52The System 55Assessment 562 Marx And Western Marxism 60Marx: Core Contributions 60Life 61Early Marx: Alienation and Capitalism 62The Materialist Conception of History 66Marx’s Analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production 71Assessment 74Western Marxism 76Core Contributions 79Gramsci 80Horkheimer 83Marcuse 85Habermas 88Assessment 91Summary 923 Life-Philosophy And Subconscious Forces: Schopenhauer, Freud, And Bergson 93Core Contributions 93Schopenhauer 95Freud 98Bergson 107Comparisons 111Assessment 1134 Nietzsche 117Core Contributions 117Life 119On Reading Nietzsche 119The Death of God and the Struggle Against Nihilism 120Critique of Morality and Revaluation of Values 124Constructive Ethics: Life-Affirmation, Power, Individuated Virtues 130Art 132History 134Culture and Politics 136Human Life and Consciousness 138Epistemology and Metaphysics 140New Philosophers 142Comparisons 143Assessment 1465 Hermeneutics 149Core Contributions 149A Precursor: Schleiermacher 152Dilthey 154Heidegger 158Gadamer 165Betti 167Comparisons 169Assessment 1706 Phenomenology 174Introduction 174Core Contributions 177Some Types of Phenomenology 181The Contributions of the Founder: Husserl 183Concrete Phenomenological Studies 187Phenomenology and Social Science 199Other Applications 201Comparisons 202Assessment 2037 Existentialism And Philosophical Anthropology 206Core Contributions 206Existentialism 207Kierkegaard 209Heidegger 215Sartre 221Philosophical Anthropology 228Scheler 229Goldstein 234Gehlen 237Assessment 2408 Structuralism 243Core Contributions 243Saussure 245Barthes 249Lévi-Strauss 253Lacan 257Althusser 260Barthes’s Transcendence of Structuralism 263Assessment 2649 Philosophies Of Dispersion 267Introduction 267Core Contributions 268Foucault 271Derrida 280Deleuze 287Assessment 29110 French Feminist Philosophy 297Core Contributions 297De Beauvoir 299Kristeva 305Irigaray 310Le Doeuff 315Comparisons 319Assessment 32011 Postmodernism 323Some Distinctions 323Core Contributions 325Lyotard 327Baudrillard 332Assessment 341Conclusions 345Strengths and Achievements 345Decision-points 351Specific Field Contributions 357Dispersionist Challenges to the Tradition: A Response 363Notes 374Bibliography 403Index 429