Persuaded by the perspicacious critiques carried out by such figures as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, François Lyotard, and a host of others, many theorists belonging to that catch-all field known as "contemporary continental philosophy, " have forcefully challenged the traditional notions of origin, foundation, the absolute, teleology, essence, etc. This tendency is felt most poignantly today in the discourse of "post-modernism."