This text on communicative ethics, first published in Denmark in 1985, represents an alternative to teleological and deontological ethics and brings Danish philosophers (such as Kierkegaard, Logstrup, Gadamer and Habermas) into the Anglo-American debate. A picture of interpersonal communication emerges via an analysis of conflicts in Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing, and the author identifies a situation based on mutual interdependence and power relations that must be managed by exercising solidarity.

This book provides a new system of communicative ethics which present an alternative to teleological and deontological ethics. It brings philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Logstrup, Gadamer and Habermas into the Anglo-American debate.

Critique of metaphysics has been a persistent theme of the 20th century philosophy. But the limitations of this critique are manifesting themselves more and more clearly. Among these limitations is the fact that both inner and outer nature have form and structure. A Philosophy of nature becomes inevitable. The lifeworld of man cannot be thoroughly understood without a metaphysical dimension.

Nature has always challenged human understanding. But we have almost forgotten that nature as a great enigma, can fill the human mind with contemplative wonder. The problems presented for metaphysics are, as ever, theoretical and aesthetic ones.

This volume treats such metaphysical questions about man and nature and about the relationship between them as arise in the human lifeworld beyond the prevailing critique of metaphysics. The contributions provide a comprehensive elucidation of the theoretical and practical problems of metaphysics. Both classical and modern metaphysical subjects, -- environmental ethics or the relationship between nature, ethics and aesthetics, -- are recurrent themes of the book.

Nature and Lifeworld has been compiled by an international group of European scholars.