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Foreword by Markus Gabriel<br /><br />Preface<br /><br /><br />Introduction<br /><br /><br />The Art of Self-Knowledge<br /><br />Self-Knowledge – The Intangibility of the I – Who’s Speaking? – Narrative Meaning –Meaning and Being – The Project of a Narrative Ontology – The Truth of Art – Thomas Mann as Model – The Enigma of Human Being – Freedom – Selfhood as Character<br /><br /><br />Part One: The Stories of Jacob<br /><br /><br />1. The Ambiguity of the I<br /><br />The Leitmotif – The Original Scene – Readings – The Unrest of the Blessing – Identity     of Form and Content – The Narrative Decentring of the I – Coined Archetypes –  Isaac’s ‘Blindness’ – Selfhood as Self-Understanding<br /><br /><br />2. The World Theatre<br /><br />The Thought-Model of the Actor – The World as Stage – History – Meaning of Life? –  The Author as Narrator and Reader – Meaning as Happiness or Happiness as Meaning – Connecting Thoughts – Cain and Abel – The Role of Human Being – The Dignity of Universality – Humanity in Each Person<br /><br /><br />3. Narrative Irony<br /><br />Deception and Disappointment – Leah – Day and Night – Nonsense – Jacob’s Four Deceptions – The Denied Sacrifice – Dialectic of Spiritual Inheritance – Hope – Joseph’s Gift – Mercy of the Last Deception<br /><br /><br />Part Two: Time and Meaning<br /><br /><br />4. The Well of the Past<br /><br />Ontology of Egoism – Self-Respect – Descent into Hell – Wandering – The Abyss of Time – Desperation of Passing Time – Memento Mori – Promise and Expectation – Time that cannot be Enumerated – The Feast of the Narrative<br /><br /><br />5. How Abraham Discovered God<br /><br />Where to Begin? – The Adventure of Self-Knowledge –  In the Image of God – Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of God – The Courage for Monotheism – Not the Good, but the Whole – God’s History? – Model and Succession – Theology of Narration<br /><br /><br />6. What are Human Beings, that You are Mindful of them? <br /><br />Higher Echelons – Human Reason and Language – Evil – On the Economy of Morality – The Narratable World of What Happens – Who Narrates? – The Novel of the Soul – Very Serious Jokes – In Praise of Transience<br /><br /><br />Part Three: The Stories of Joseph<br /><br /><br />7. The Future<br /><br />Self-Love – Wit in Language –Ambiguity of the Talent – Knowledge of the Future? – Being on One’s Way – Sympathy – Certainty of Death – The Dreamer of Dreams – The Catastrophe<br /><br /><br />8. The Dying Grain<br /><br />The Oracle – The Simile of the Dying Grain – Joseph’s Awakening – Compassion – The Illusionary Character of Individuality – The Truth of Illusion – At the Empty Grave – The Other Simile – History in Becoming<br /><br /><br />9. Only a Simile<br /><br />Joseph in Egypt – Historical and Narrative Attentiveness – Laban’s Realm – Huya and Tuya – Egypt as Symbol – The Sphinx – Interpreting Dreams – Pharaoh – Letter and Spirit of Understanding – Interpretation of God – Historical and Narrative Truth – Play and Allusion<br /><br /><br />Conclusion<br /><br /><br />Making Present<br /><br />Diagnosis of Time – Nihilism as Human Self-Belittlement – Abraham’s Legacy<br /><br /><br />References<br /><br />Notes<br /><br />Index

‘Axel Hutter has been for years a powerful critic of philosophy’s post-metaphysical trends and its nihilist implications. The beautiful achievement of this philosophical tour de force is to outflank these trends by showing that metaphysics is quite literally revealed through text.’<br /><b>Omri Boehm, The New School for Social Research</b>

<b>Axel Hutter</b> is Professor of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

GB