Introduction

Continental philosophy, as it has emerged in the twentieth century, is less a seamless fabric than a patchwork of diverse strands. Phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, structuralism, critical theory, deconstruction-these are some of the salient movements which have developed in continental Europe between 1900 and the 1990s, though their influence is by no means confined to their area of origin. Continental thought has proved highly exportable, circulating far beyond the frontiers of Europe to provoke strong responses in the intellectual world at large.