Modern civilization and the way of life it shapes pose a serious challenge to
the humanities (die Geisteswissenschaften), to their conceptual core such as
notions of consciousness and self-consciousness, freedom and free will that
form the basis for the theory and practice of morality, law, education, art,
and politics. The data of contemporary neurophysiology also add to these
challenges, reinforcing their robustness. Thus it is not simply a question of
rethinking a number of ideas and concepts, but of determining the essence of
humanitarian knowledge and its place in the general system of socio-cultural
practices. And, as it seems, it is a non-trivial place. In this non-triviality, narration and the narrative approach appear to play a key role.