My aim in this book is to offer to the reader a philosophical reading of Shakespeare, not from the point of view of the philosopher reading Shakespeare but from that of the philosopher that we, his readers, encounter in his works. In other words, I propose a reading of Shakespeare as creator, as an inventor of new concepts for us. Shakespeare as a creator of new thought, as an inventor of new concepts, means for me that Shakespeare's art not only gives us the most beautiful plays—which, together with ancient tragedies, form the treasure of world literature—but he produces a new way of thinking life (and death, and power, and affect), which was unprecedented.