This book is a series of translated essays covering German philosophy, literary theory, and modern intellectual history. Odo Marquard is considered the natural heir to Gadamer, Habermas, and Blumenberg, and here discusses a number of different topics: his role as 'skeptical' philosopher; the formation during the 18th century of modern 'themes' and 'disciplines' such as aesthetics, philosophical anthropology, and philosophy of history; the nature of myth and attempts to account for it, from Schelling to Levi-Strauss; and the question of hermeneutics.