Prof. J.N. Mohanty has been identified with phenomenology in the deepest and widest sense of the term, including not only Husserl, but Hegel, and more recent forms, such as hermeneutic phenomenology.¹ Now as Gadamer has reminded us, one of the results of hermeneutics, or textual interpretation, is to reveal aspects of a text which surpass the knowledge or intention of its author. The purpose of this paper is to consider Jaspers' important book on Schelling.² As we shall see, although Jaspers has a precise aim in view, examination of his work will lead to a very different conclusion than he apparently intends. In that sense, Jaspers' book is an unwitting instance of the fact that texts have a life of their own which frequently escapes full control of their authors.³