The cover features philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein, Immanuel Kant, and Martin Heidegger.

Kant developed the principle of free will into the categorical imperative in the “Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten” (Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals). Based on the autonomy of reason and free will, hs ethical imperative is arguably – and to some extent - the only ethical system to date that manages to derive universal human rights.

In contrast, Wittgenstein believes a rational basis of ethics is impossible and a confusion of language. It is impossible to provide a rationale for ethics that everyone can understand. "An ethical proposition is a personal act" and, he believes, it is almost identical with aesthetics. Ethical argumentation requires persuasion by means of a language game and changing the terms.

While Heidegger rejects ethics as a philosophical discipline, he understands, however, that the basic structure of human existence is to worry. As a form of existence throughout the world, worry spans globe, along with man’s relationship to himself. Caring about others, worrying about the practical things, and being consciously aware of being worried means that man is the caretaker and resigned to worrying about the state of being.

Stefan M. Fischer