BY PLACING Simon Critchley's "Dare to think" next to your celebration of Michael Craig-Martin (THES, February 6), you ironically illustrate why "Young British Art" serves Charles Saatchi so neatly. Saatchi links "advanced" art to business "creativity" to build up his public relations agency's creative reputation; making money is a bonus.
Critchley's failure to mention Paul Ricoeur, the most important contemporary continental philosopher, perfectly illustrates an intellectual climate apparently incapable of theorising the connections between Saatchi, key player in Margaret Thatcher's consumer capitalism, and the values promoted by Craig-Martin, key player in the "Academy of Libertarian Transgression". How unfortunate that Critchley overlooked a philosopher whose work can genuinely help us develop a "grown-up" culture.
Iain A. Biggs. Faculty of art, media and design UWE, Bristol
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