* The origins and basic themes of existentialism.

* Two representative existentialists, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.

* The origins and basic themes of phenomenology.

* The phenomenology of Martin Heidegger.

* Heidegger's views on poetry.

* The critical theory of Jurgen Habermas.

* Michel Foucault's views on truth and progress.

* Structuralism and deconstruction.

* Richard Rorty's neopragmatism.