"Origin and Presence," the main work of Jean Gebser, is one of the most distinctive and significant attempts to view and interpret the 20th century against the backdrop of the entire history of humanity. For Gebser, the change in the relationship to time that occurred with the onset of the Renaissance is the crucial pivot for the problems and sufferings of modernity. This altered consciousness of time is documented by the discovery of perspective; it replaces the unperspectival, mythical age and ushers in the era of perspective-driven, progressive science. As a result, the increasingly this-worldly human loses trust in the world and descends into individual isolation. Gebser's work is a critical dialogue with the spirit and culture of the world we live in - with its traditions, expectations, and excesses. The abundance.