Abstract

Karl Barth's younger brother died shortly before the publication of this monumental work, the crowning piece of his long philosophical career. Since Sein und Zeit and L'Etre et le Néant the present book has been the first real "treatise" in what now we might call "the existentialistic tradition." Such a short notice cannot even hope to enumerate the major themes of this huge volume. This is a truly significant work covering most of the themes that attract a passionate concern for the history of Western philosophizing. The continuity with this history is preserved through the determination of existence as knowledge. The question and the quest about appearance is conducted in such a way that neither the existentialist nor the transcendental elements are neglected. Throughout the entire book it is argued that appearance and existence are positively grounded in transcendence.—M. J. V.