Twentieth-Century French Philosophy (OPUS)

In particular, I think that the section on Bergson was appropriately respectful and the explanation of Sartre's "Bad Faith" was excellent. Also, the last two chapters (on Poststructuralism and Recent French Feminism) were clearly written (and these modern topics are in desperate need of clarity).

This type of book is, to me, important not only for giving the reader general information about a topic, but also for finding others (in this case philosophers) who we may not have been aware of, and we may be interested in reading more of, and of their works themselves. Personally, I found myself more interested in Levinas than I had been previously.

I do have some criticisms of the book. There is an obvious slant in the book away from Sartre and in favor of Merleau-Ponty. At times, the criticisms seem unfair. Also, I find the criticisms of Camus (he "was not, in the technical sense, a philosopher at all") to be anti-continental (in a book which is trying to bridge the gap!). Finally, I find problems in the later chapters (about Derrida and co.) in the sections in which the author critically analyzes the philosophers. Matthews' arguments, at that point, seem poor in general and one-dimentional.

Even though there are some problems, I do strongly recommend this book. Matthews has done a fine job with his choice of philosophers, choice of format & length, and choice of level of clarity.