Aron Gurwitsch did not publish his Habilitationschrift, completed in 1931, or follow up its themes in his subsequent work. Only at the end of his life did he consent to its publication and, shortly before his death in 1973, reviewed the text for the present edition.

The title of the volume is apt: Steinkraus succeeded in assembling an admirable collection, truly representative of the thought, the intellectual development and the spirit of one of the most remarkable figures of American philosophy, Borden Parker Bowne, for thirty six years--until his untimely death at 63 in 1910--a professor of philosophy at Boston University and one of the most prolific philosophic writers in America.