Book excerpt: Situated at the crossroads of nature and culture, physics and consciousness, cosmos and life, history – intimately conjoined with time – continues to puzzle the philosopher as well as the scientist. Does brute nature unfold a history? Does human history have a telos? Does human existence have a purpose? Phenomenology of life projects a new interrogative system for reexamining these questions. We are invited to follow the logos of life as it spins in innumerable ways the interplay of natural factors, human passions, social forces, science and experience – through interruptions and kairic moments of accomplishment – in the human creative imagination and intellective reasoning. There then run a cohesive thread of reality.