Book Review: the concept of world from Kant to Derrida by Sean Gaston

Sean Gaston sets out to provide an account of the concept of world from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, exploring its possibilities and limitations and engaging with current issues in politics and ecology. He focuses on the work of five principal thinkers: Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger and Derrida, all of whom attempt to establish new grounds for seeing the world as a whole. The reader does not need to be a Kantian or Derridean scholar to enjoy the publication – though it would help and certainly enrich one’s reading – however, the title does demand a strong philosophical background in order to appreciate the intricacies of perspectives at work, writes James B. Cuffe.