..". no other book undertakes to relate all these Frenchphilosophers to each other the way that (Lawlor) does, brilliantly." --Fran ois RaffoulFor many, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, andGilles Deleuze represent one of the greatest movements in French philosophy. Butthese philosophers and their works did not materialize without a philosophicalheritage. In Thinking through French Philosophy, Leonard Lawlor shows how the workof Maurice Merleau-Ponty formed an important current in sustaining the developmentof structuralism and post-structuralism. Seeking the "point ofdiffraction, " or the specific ideas and concepts that link Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze, Lawlor discovers differences and convergences in these thinkers whoworked the same terrain. Major themes include metaphysics, archaeology, language anddocumentation, expression and interrogation, and the very experience of thinking.Lawlor's focus on the experience of the question brings out critical differences inimmanence and transcendence. This illuminating and provocative book brings newvitality to debates on contemporary French philosophy.