The essays collected in this volume mark an epistemological borderline, a stage of transition in Western thought. Within the humanities, this transition can be described as a movement away from ‘interpretation’ (as identification of meaning) toward problems concerning the conditions of the constitutions of meaning. This concentration on the material acknowledges a philosophical warning against an ever increasing degree of abstraction that threatens the loss of contact with the concrete and sensual dimensions of our experience. The contributors include several major participants in the recent reorientation of the humanities.