• Covers the whole period of French philosophy from its origins in the sixteenth century up to the present
• Analyses the history of French philosophy in its social, political, and cultural context
• Offers a corrective to narrow treatments of post-war French philosophy
• Provides introductions to philosophers just now beginning to acquire a readership in English
• Avoids a sectarian treatment of movements within contemporary French philosophy, showing how each plays a role in maintaining the distinct character of French philosophy, past and present

   
French culture is unique in that philosophy has played a significant role from the early-modern period onwards, intimately associated with political, religious, and literary debates, as well as with epistemological and scientific ones. While Latin was the language of learning there was a universal philosophical literature, but with the rise of vernacular literatures things changed and a distinctive national form of philosophy arose in France.
      
This Very Short Introduction covers French philosophy from its origins in the sixteenth century up to the present, analysing it within its social, political, and cultural context. Beginning with psychology and epistemology, Stephen Gaukroger and Knox Peden then move onto the emergence of radical philosophy in the eighteenth century, before considering post-revolutionary philosophy in the nineteenth century, philosophy in the world wars, the radical thought of the 1960s, and finally French philosophy today. Throughout, they explore the dilemma sustained by the markedly national conception of French philosophy, and its history of speaking out on matters of universal concern.