The external impetus for writing this book was a letter from Springer Publishing, Berlin. In it, the request was made to further develop thoughts on economic construction that had previously only been published in lectures and essays, and to present them comprehensively in a book. However, at that time - shortly after the outbreak of World War II - I had already distanced myself internally from such considerations. It seemed to me more important and, above all, more urgent to first seek a sense of purpose and a structured goal for technical creation. The efforts to address both concerns ultimately led me to the conviction that a book in which the innovative construction theory is placed within the larger ethical, scientific, and economic contexts meets a general need of our time.