An accessible basic guide to critical post-Enlightenment European thinking, this book introduces fifteen key figures in modern Western philosophy. The intellectual tradition covered is broadly the Continental philosophy and theory that has had a significant impact on many theoretical innovations in the humanities and social

sciences. The book covers those thinkers whose work serves as the background for many contemporary thinkers such as Derrida, Foucault and Habermas. There are individual chapters on Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, Lukàcs, Adorno and Horkheimer, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Wittgenstein, Arendt, and Lévi-Strauss. Each chapter offers contextualization, explains major concepts and the thinker's relevance to an ongoing tradition, and offers suggestions for further reading.

Jon Simons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University who has broad expertise in contemporary critical theory. He is the author of Foucault and the Political (Routledge, 1995) and the editor of and contributor to From Kant to Lévi-Strauss: The Background to Contemporary Critical Theory and Contemporary Critical Theorists: From Lacan to Said (Edinburgh University Press, 2002 & 2004 respectively).

Introduction by Jon Simons; 1. Kant by Jon Simons; 2 Hegel by Matt F. Connell; 3. Marx by Simon Tormey; 4. Nietzsche by Jon Simons; 5. Weber by John Ellis and Jon Simons; 6. Freud by Richard King; 7. Lukacs by Stuart Sim; 8. Adorno and Horkheimer by Matt F. Connell; 9. Husserl by William Hutson; 10. Heidegger by David Woods; 11. Gadamer by Nicholas Smith; 12. Wittgenstein by Simon Tormey; 13. Arendt by Richard King; 14. Levi-Strauss by Chris Johnson.