In a series of twenty-two thought provoking notes, or mini-essays, John Elias presents an original interpretation and analysis of the philosophical crisis of modernity. In Philosophical Notes to My Friends, he examines and discusses a range of topics and themes in recent intellectual history: from political correctness to the political debates about the Western canon, from the ‘death of God’ and the end of meta-narratives, such as Christianity, Marxism and Psychoanalysis, to the limits of pluralism, deconstruction, and the role of the intellectual in the present age. This provocative, engaging, and interdisciplinary work critically examines the writings and thought of major thinkers such as Hegel, Nietzche, Sartre, Focault, Habermas, and Derrida, as a way to explore and make sense of the current intellectual confusion about the nature and limits of modernity, pluralism, language, communication, interpretation, identity, and community.