Since I have been twice accused of being a postmodernist in unrelated circumstances, I have took it upon myself to understand what that means. I picked up both Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction and Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction.

I shall soon be able to out-Derrida and out-Foucault anyone, and my dazzling wit will amaze at many a cocktail party.

The real object of this post, however, is to recommend the books in this series for anyone who is interested in learning about philosophy. They are, for the most part, very readable. They assume a certain familiarity with philosophy, history, and literature, but this depends on the subject. The intro to Kant, for example, spends about 5 brain crunching pages on Hume before getting on to the main subject. It would probably be better to just read the Hume first.

The authors (mostly prestigious profs) tend to be good salemen for their subject, but they rarely, if ever, try to hide the problems. The intro to Nietzsche, for example, is as stirring a read as the real thing, and the man who wrote it, Michael Tanner, seems to have a sense of admiration and affection for his subject mixed with an appropriate skepticism. It's a book I would recommend for its own sake, not just as an introduction to a great thinker.

Here is what seems to be a complete list (they are always making new ones). I want the Intro to Chaos!