1. Introduction: 'bourgeois philosophy' and the problem of the subject; Part I: 2. The Kantian aftermath: reaction and revolution in modern German philosophy; Part II: 3. Necessary conditions for the possibility of what isn't: Heidegger on failed meaning; 4. Gadamer's Hegel: subjectivity and reflection; 5. Negative ethics: Adorno on the falseness of bourgeois life; 6. The unavailability of the ordinary: Strauss on the philosophical fate of modernity; 7. Hannah Arendt and the bourgeois origins of totalitarian evil; 8. On not being a neo-structuralist: remarks on Manfred Frank and romantic subjectivity; 9. Leaving nature behind: or, two cheers for subjectivism: on John McDowell; Part III: 10. The ethical status of civility; 11. Medical practice and Social authority in modernity; Part IV. Expression: 12. The force of felt necessity: literature, ethical knowledge, and the law; 13. What was abstract art? (from the point of view of Hegel); 14. On becoming who one is: Proust's problematic selves.

'… Pippin is one of the most original and imaginative philosophers now at work. … I can think of no other philosopher writing today who is so consistently illuminating on such a wide range of topics. We can learn a lot from Pippin.' Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews