The present book, published in France in 1969, a few months before the release of Kostas Axelos's major work The Play of the World, collects his youthful writings from 1950 to 1968.

Their themes shed light on his subsequent intellectual development and revolve around four main and converging axes: Greek Thought – Byzantine Spirituality – Milestones Toward a Post-Marxism – Planetary Play. Moving forward, we encounter essays that address urgent and timeless issues.

Man has never ceased to inhabit a world of conquerors and the conquered or to move within the fluidity of a history that often leaves a heavy imprint of the past on every present. As in the Greek civil war, for example, in which the author participated, or the May ’68 uprising in France—events that also appear on these pages—viewed through the very calm perspective of the reflective observer who evaluates past situations while facing the future.

Because the future primarily concerns him. In this regard, the Research Arguments provide us with a key to understanding Axelos's thought as it developed in the subsequent decades, focusing on “planetary techniques,” the “realm of technology,” and humanity's shared fate.

In this Greek translation, it was deemed appropriate to add a “Postscript” with five subsequent but related texts (including two interviews) by Kostas Axelos. Published in various specialized magazines (three of which have also been translated into Greek), these have not been included in any of his other books.