The book presents the texts of eleven talks given on the France-Culture Radio from September 2002 to July 2003. In these short addresses, Nancy discusses: terror in relation to religion and capitalism; the relevance of philosophy to life (whether philosophy can be a form of life); the status of god in monotheism; the relevance of "politics" as it is defined today; the "Heidegger affair" and its consequences for philosophy; war, especially in the context of the invasion of Iraq; the role of negativity in philosophical and cultural discourses; "art" and the variability of its meanings, the predominance of the metaphor of the sun. The essays can be read separately, but together they amount to the striking vision of a philosopher sensitive to the world of his times and attempting to open his own path within it. The human condition that governs philosophy is, he concludes, to tread the narrow path between the conditioned and the unconditioned.