The Philosopher and Peace -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Excerpts from First Philosophical Notes and Sketches, 1909-1914 (Manuscript IX) -- Thoughts on the Idea of Absolute Knowledge and on the Participation of Thought in Being. Winter, 1910-1911 (Manuscript XII) -- Notes, 1912-1913 (Manuscript XIV) -- Notes on the Ground of Values -- Notes on the Problem of Immortality -- Notes on the Unverifiable -- Theory of Participation, 1913-1914 (Manuscript XVII) -- Postface (Epilogue)

When first approached with the idea of publishing his earliest philosophical journals and notebooks, Gabriel Marcel was astonished that what he termed his "juvenilia "would be considered worth publishing. Truly, his present status as France's foremost "theistic existentialist "places him in a category far above what is indicated in his expressions of youthful naïveté. His own attitude toward his early work is ambivalent. Speaking of the early writings, he says, "At certain moments, it is as if they opened up on the sky,"but, on the other hand, "how desert-like were my approaches."Yet, for the neophyte as well as the serious student of Marcel's Metaphysical Journal, the publication of these notes is invaluable for it marks the path to deeper, more pervading insight into the genesis of Marcel's thought. Whit the inclusion in this volume of "The Philosopher and Peace,"his acceptance speech for the annul 1964 Peace Prize awarded by the German Book Trade, one can appreciate the depth of wisdom of the mature philosopher facing one of the most pressing problems of our day. That he was selected for his honor attest to the high regard given the and integrity of Mr. Marcel. We are presented with the thought of hid maturity, the result of a development beginning in his young manhood and continuing to the present. In Marcel's own words, he finds "recurring the inevitably spiral character of that intellectual motion which is one of the constants of minds."