Knowledge and Postmodernism in Historical Perspective

This reader chronicles the Western engagement with the nature of knowledge during the past four centuries.

It introduces the student to the thought of the major philosophers of this period, from Francis Bacon to Hayden White, through substantial extracts of their works.

Tracing the development of Western thought, the reader provides an historical context for the postmodernist thought of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty and Hayden White.

This reader is an introduction to the work of over 30 philosophers and the historical development of Western ideas of knowledge.