This major philosophical work by the late Reiner Schürmann is one of the most important texts in modern continental philosophy, with resonance also for ancient, medieval, and modern European philosophy. In it, Schürmann aims to show how the orthodox thinking of each historical epoch was shaped and then "broken," to be replaced by a new paradigm for a new epoch, almost containing the seeds of its demise. Although the author died before he could finish the English version, he entrusted a colleague, Reginald Lilly, to oversee the translation. Lilly and his team of translators spent more than eight years bringing Schürmann's magnum opus to life in this English edition.

Author Biography: Reiner Schürmann (1941-1993) was Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He was author of Meister Eckhardt: Mystic and Philosopher and Heidegger on Being and Acting: From Principles to Anarchy (both published by Indiana University Press) and an autobiographical novel, Les Origines. Reginald Lilly is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Skidmore College. He is translator of The Principle of Reason by Martin Heidegger and editor of The Ancients and the Moderns (both published by Indiana University Press).