Zen and Western Philosophy takes a novel approach to philosophy. The book's goal is to capture the body of thought called "Western philosophy" with an Eastern net-Zen as embodied in haiku. The book offers profiles of 139 Western philosophers by using a traditional three-line haiku format of 5-7-5 syllables in order to capture each philosopher's ideas in a manner that is both concise and playful.

Simply put, the book's purpose, design, and structure is

A parallax view

of Western philosophy

through an Eastern lens.

It's a difficult task to capture a philosopher's ideas in a mere 17 syllables. While the 139 haikus will reinforce, for the reader, the ideas of famous philosophers, perhaps also readers will be inspired create their own creative, philosophical haiku.