Motivated by the assumption that students cannot appreciate philosophical postmodernism without first understanding the development of modernity, this anthology puts the contemporary philosophical debate over postmodernism in the context of the development and criticism of modernity since the 17th century. Half of the 42 selections are devoted to postmodernism in philosophy, literature and architecture, and its critics; and half to the formation and criticism of modernity from the 17th through the mid-20th centuries. Intellectual precusors of current postmodernists are systematically included. The result is a collection of writings from Descartes to Derrida. Selected authors include: Rousseau, Burke, Kant, Marx, Peirce, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Freud, Weber, Husserl, Wittgenstein, Le Corbusier, Adorno, Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, Hassan, Lyotard, Irigary, Rorty, Habermas and MacIntyre. An editor's introduction defines the problems raised by postmodernism, and introductory paragraphs help to contextualize each selection.