French philosophy French philosophy French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in the French language, has been extremely diverse and has influenced Western philosophy as a whole for centuries, from the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, through the founding of modern philosophy by René Descartes, to 20th century philosophy of science, existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, and postmodernism. Peter Abelard (1079 – April 21, 1142) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian and logician. The story of his affair with and love for Héloïse has become legendary. The "Chambers Biographical Dictionary" describes him as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century". The general
Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy is a 2002 English book edited by Peter Pericles Trifonas which contains a lecture and a roundtable discussion by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, and a 50 pages essay by Trifonas himself. Derrida's lecture is titled, "The Right to Philosophy from the Cosmopolitical Point of View". The first chapter is the lecture "The Right to Philosophy from the Cosmopolitical Point of View", held in 1991 by French philosopher "Jacques Derrida" at UNESCO. The second chapter of the book is a roundtable discussion in which Derrida responded to