Foreword from the Helmuth Plessner Society | vii
Translator's Preface and Acknowledgments | ix
Preface to the First Edition (1928) | xv
Preface to the Second Edition (1965) | xix
Introduction | xxxvii
J. M. Bernstein
1. Aim and Scope of the Study | 1

The Development of Intuitionist Lebensphilosophie in Opposition to

Experience, 3 ¿ Lebensphilosophie and the Theory of the Humanities, 11 ¿

Working Plan for the Foundation of a Philosophy of the Human, 22
2. The Cartesian Objection and the Nature of the Problem | 34

Extension vs. Interiority and the Problem of Appearance, 34 ¿

Appearance as Originating in Interiority, 38 ¿ The Prior Givenness

of Interiority and the Forward Displacement of Myself: The Proposition

of Immanence 41 ¿ Extension as Outer World; Interiority as Inner

World, 46 ¿ The Proposition of Representation and the Element

of Sensation, 51 ¿ The Inaccessibility of Other I's according to the

Principle of Sensualism, 55 ¿ The Need for a Revision of the Cartesian

Dichotomy in the Interest of a Science of Life, 58 ¿ A Methodological

Reformulation of the Opening Question, 64
3. The Thesis | 75

The Question, 75 ¿ The Dual Aspect in the Appearance of Ordinary

Perceptual Things, 76 ¿ Against the Misinterpretation of This Analysis:

A Closer Focus on the Subject Matter, 81 ¿ The Dual Aspect of Living

Perceptual Things: Köhler contra Driesch, 84 ¿ How Is Dual Aspectivity

Possible? The Nature of the Boundary, 93 ¿ The Task of a Theory of the

Essential Characteristics of the Organic, 99 ¿ Definitions of Life, 104 ¿

Nature and Object of a Theory of the Essential Characteristics of the

Organic, 110
4. The Modes of Being of Vitality | 115

Essential Characteristics Indicating Vitality, 115 ¿ The Positionality of

Living Being and Its Spacelikeness, 118 ¿ Living Being as Process

and Type; the Dynamic Character of the Living Form; the Individuality of the

Living Thing, 123 ¿ Living Process as Development, 129 ¿ The Curve of

Development: Aging and Death, 137 ¿ The Individual Living Thing as a

System, 144 ¿ The Self-Regulation of the Individual Living Thing

and the Harmonious Equipotentiality of Its Parts, 149 ¿ Individual Living Things

as Organized: The Dual Meaning of Organs, 154 ¿ The Temporality of

Living Being, 159 ¿ The Positional Union of Space and Time and the

Natural Place, 168
5. The Organizational Modes of Living Being: Plants and Animals | 172

The Circle of Life, 172 ¿ Assimilation-Dissimilation, 182 ¿

Adaptedness and Adaptation, 186 ¿ Reproduction, Heredity,

Selection, 196 ¿ The Open Form of Organization of the Plant, 202 ¿

The Closed Form of Organization of the Animal, 209
6. The Sphere of the Animal | 219

The Positionality of the Closed Form: Centrality and Frontality, 219 ¿

The Coordination of Stimulus and Response in the Case of an Inoperative

Subject (Decentralized Type of Organization), 227 ¿ The Coordination of

Stimulus and Response by a Subject (Centralized Type of Organization),

231 ¿ The Animal's Surrounding Field Organized into Complex Qualities and

Things, 242 ¿ Intelligence, 252 ¿ Memory, 257 ¿ Memory as the Unity of

Residue and Anticipation, 262
7. The Sphere of the Human | 267

The Positionality of the Excentric Form: "I" and Personhood, 267 ¿

Outer World, Inner World, Shared World, 272 ¿ The Fundamental Laws

of Anthropology: The Law of Natural Artificiality, 287 ¿ The Law of

Mediated Immediacy: Immanence and Expressivity, 298 ¿ The Law of

the Utopian Standpoint: Nullity and Transcendence, 316
Appendix | 323
Glossary | 337
Notes | 345
Index | 359