Derrida is the last in the long tradition of recalcitrant French intellectuals, stretching from Rousseau, through Sartre, to Foucault. Typically, he disagrees with all his predecessors. His close philosophical scrutiny led him to formulate the notion of deconstruction. According to Derrida, this should seek a new investigation of responsibility, questioning the codes inherited from ethics and politics. The Virgin Philosophers Series covers the lives and ideas of the major philosophers. Author Paul Strathern highlights the major advances in philosophy, as well as the men who conceived them and the times in which they lived. Containing quotes, insights and anecdotes, the aim of the series is to clarify the mysteries of philosophy for the general reader.