In the last few decades a certain kind of critique has become prominent in the ethos of Western philosophy. This newer kind of critique differs in key respects from what we might call ‘landmark’ critiques in the history of that philosophy. While the older kind of critique, such as the critiques of Kant or Descartes, focused on establishing new constructive possibilities for thought and action, the best energies of the newer kind of critique are reserved for investigations that combine an incisive analysis of ethical and political issues with a deep and enduring scepticism, even pessimism. Its gestures are characteristically more deconstructive than constructive and it targets in a particular way the more buoyant currents of thought in the philosophical discourse of modernity. Perhaps the most prominent examples of the newer critique are the writings of Lyotard and Foucault, but permeating this ethos more widely is the influential figure of Nietzsche, whose ‘philosophy of the future’ has finally come of age.