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 haikus.