This text contains two of Walter Benjamin's essays, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction , and Theses on the Philosophy of History , as well as others on the art of translation, Kafka, storytelling, Baudelaire, Brecht's epic theatre, Proust, and book collecting.

This monumental book, regarded by many as Sartre's greatest achievement, is one of the most influential philosophical works of the 20th century. In it Sartre set out his fundamental views on philosophy and laid the foundations of existentialism.

A knowledge of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit is essential for anyone who wishes to understand a great deal of recent continental work in theology as well as philosophy. Yet until this translation first appeared in 1962, this fundamental work of one of the most influential European thinkers of the century remained inaccessible to English readers. In fact the difficulty of Heidegger's thought was ...

Expounds upon consciousness, self-consciousness, reason, spirit, religion and absolute knowing and also supports Kant, denounces skepticism and hails idealism.

Focusing on the arcades of 19th-century Paris, the glass-roofed rows of shops, Benjamin presents a montage of quotations from, and reflections on, hundreds of published sources, arranging them in 36 categories with descriptive rubrics such as Fashion , Boredom or Prostitution .

A series of essays in which Barthes seeks to tear away masks and demystify the signs, signals, gestures and messages through which western society sustains, sells, identifies and yet obscures itself.