This is the first volume of a ground-breaking new work by Jürgen Habermas on the history of philosophy. Here Habermas sets out the ideas informing his systematic account of the history of Western philosophy as a genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking. Far from raising claims to exclusivity, completeness or closure, Habermas's account, published in English in three volumes, opens up new lines of research and reflection that will influence the humanities and social sciences for decades to come.