The new edition of perhaps the most significant book by the author, in which the leading figure of Czech post-war philosophy, Milan Machovec (1925–2003), reflects on fundamental questions and developmental currents of philosophical thought throughout its historical evolution from antiquity to the 20th century. These questions – as the author himself points out in the preface – are presented not as great achievements of our reason, as has traditionally been the case, but as a gradual debacle, threatening to escalate into the imminent self-destruction of humanity. The publication features the final version of the text from the mid-90s, when the author made the final edits. The text of the book, which is deliberately tailored for the broadest possible readership, was completed in 1983 and subsequently appeared in several typescript copies. In the mid-80s, Machovec prepared a translation into German, which was published in Stuttgart in 1988 in a shortened form under the title Die Rückkehr zur Weisheit – Philosophie angesichts des Abgrunds. The interest of readers in this work suggests that the issues emphasized by Machovec remain relevant, just as philosophical and ecological questions have not lost their significance. "I don't like to talk about 'ecological philosophy' – I don't want to unilaterally ecologize philosophy. I just want it to be the wisdom of the moment..."
