Die VerOffentlichung eines Buchmanuskripts rund fiinfzig Jahre nach seinem AbschluBl bedarf einer ErkHirung und Rechtfertigung. Die Erklarung ist vor aHem autobiographisch. Ais im Jahr 1935 meine "systematischen und historischen Vorstudien zu einer gesetzesfreien Ethik" unter dem Haupttitel Gesetz und Sittengesetz im Max Niehans Verlag in Ziirich erschienen, plante ich, ihnen alsbald die darin versprochene Ausfiihrung meines Programms einer gesetzesfreien Ethik und Philosophie der ethischen Rechte und Pflichten folgen zu lassen. Denn von Anfang an war das Endziel meiner damaligen...

Substantial encouragement for this volume came from the editors and readers of the Studies for Phenomenological and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) at Northwestern University Press. But its publi- cation has been made possible only by the unqualified and un- abridged acceptance of the Editorial Board of Phaenomen%gica, which at the time was still headed by its founder, the late Professor H. L. Van Breda, who welcomed the manuscript most generously. This makes his untimely passing even more grievous to me. The stylistic copy editing and proof reading were handled ef- ficiently by Ruth Nichols...

In releasing the text of this volume, originally set aside as a collec- tion for possible posthumous publication, during my lifetime, I am acting in a sense as my own executor: I want to save my heirs and literary executors the decision whether these pieces should be print- ed or reprinted in the present context, a decision which I wanted to postpone to the last possible moment. As to the reasons why I changed my mind I can refer to the Introduction. Here I merely want to make some acknowledgments, first to the copyright holders for the reprinted pieces and then to some personal friends who...