Bergson excoriates the spatial and static conception of the world fostered by reason, arguing instead that being is an indivisible motion, a dynamic process in which our every act is creative and free

Although not as radical or prophetic as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty exhibits greater psychological subtlety whilst the central role he gives to the body circumvents much of his predecessors latent dualism

Oblique certainly, but Heidegger was seeking a new methodology, one which could bridge the subjective/objective divide and recast philosophy as a study of the nature of Being and mans relation to it

Romanticism looms large in Schellings philosophy as he attempts to articulate the unity of man and Nature, so revealing the futility of reason and establishing Art as the surest means of knowledge

With an emphasis on faith and subjectivity, absurdity and paradox, Kierkegaard conceded that much of human existence is beyond reason and so rescued philosophy from the stranglehold of objectivity

Keen to preserve monism whilst rejecting the Hegelian dialetic, Deleuze takes inspiration from Bergson and posits Becoming as the fundamental principle of life, emphasising the productivity of Being

Characterised by Sartre as a Christian existentialist, Marcel offers an escape from typical existentialist concerns such as alienation (here dubbed the Broken World) through reciprocity and hope

More literate than many philosophers, Camus provides the most lucid introduction to existentialism as he questions how life can endure in the face of mans realisation of his own fundamental absurdity

Hegelian idealism systematises Romantic pantheism in its portrayal of history as an unfolding of the Absolute Spirit, divine and infinite self-consciousness realised through the vehicle of finite man

Emersons transcendentalism is Romantic Idealism through the American looking-glass, revealing our relation with nature as one of pure intuition, coupled with an emphasis on self-reliance and autonomy

Plotinus founded the Neo-Platonic tradition and in doing so paved the way for the hermetic philosophy of the alchemists, for in the One he posits an ultimate source of mystical transcendence and unit

Marxs dialectical deconstruction of history and capitalism is profound, whilst one can only sympathise with his insistence that philosophy must not only analyse the world but attempt to change it

Foucault dubbed his chair History of the Systems of Thought, and his concern is with how the historicism which ensures the finitude of knowledge must also be its condition, both founded and founding