Gerhardt establishes the principle of individuality as the foundation of a moral theory in this book, which can now be considered almost classic. In ten chapters, he examines various self-relations, ranging from self-awareness to self-consciousness and self-realization. It is an attempt to more precisely define the relationship between morality and life, starting from the experience of life where moral collisions ignite, as noted by ZEIT in its very positive review of the first edition. For this second edition, the book has been revised and supplemented with a new afterword.