Brian Birchall’s philosophy falls into two distinct periods. The first, from 1965 to 1983, was when he was a committed Andersonian, writing mainly academic articles and lectures. The second, from 1984 till his death in 2010, was characterised by his writing of ideograms or conceptual sketches. These were non-academic in style and were characterised by his articulation of a phenomenological and dialectical conception of philosophy.