The first text to critically discuss Edmund Husserl's concept of the "life-world,” The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem reflects Jan Patoka's youthful conversations with the founder of phenomenology and two of his closest disciples, Eugen Fink and Ludwig Landgrebe. This translation includes an introduction by Landgrebe and two afterwords added by Patoka in the 1970s.

JAN PATOCKA (1907-1977) was a Czech philosopher, phenomenologist, cultural critic, and one of the first spokespersons for the Charta 77 human rights movement in the former Czechoslovakia. He was among Edmund Husserl's last students, and he attended Heidegger's seminars in Freiburg.

IVAN CHVATIK is director of the Jan Patocka Archive and codirector of the Center for Theoretical Study at the Institute for Advanced Study at Charles University and the Czech Adademy of Sciences in Prague.

L'UBICA UCNIK is Professor of Philosophy at Murdoch University in Australia.

ERIKA ABRAMS is an award-winning translator and freelance writer. She coedited Jan Patocka and the Heritage of Phenomenology, and has translated and edited fifteen volumes of Patocka's writings in French.

LUDWIG LANDGREBE (1902-1991) was an Austrian phenomenologist and close associate of Edmund Husserl.