Contents -- Preface to the series "Challenges of Life" -- Life Configurations -- Philosophical Foundations -- Contributions for considering the possibility of all life configurations -- "Philosophical Anthropology" as an Interpretation of Human Life Forms -- Life and Language -- Historical Perspectives -- Carpe diem: Time and Life Configuration in the Hellenistic Roman World -- Life Configurations in the Middle Ages between Divine Acting and Human Self-Determination -- Foreseeing the Future Under a Communist Regime -- Cultural Identities -- Explaining the Vicissitudes of Human Life: The Indian View -- Life Configurations: Perceived Patternings in Pre-modern China -- The Muslim Conduct of Life: Paths of Continuity -- Sorcery comes from nearby. Problems of the human condition according to some Amazonian indigenous peoples -- Returning to the Land, Evoking the Past, and Sowing the Future. Guaraní and Tapiete Indians and the Formation of New Rural Communities in Northwestern Argentina -- Life as Quotidian Acts of Justice in Northern Mozambique -- Politics - Economics - Ethics -- Configurations of (Political) Life -- The Politics of Survival -- What's Alive for Economics? -- Can Ethics Shape Modern Societies? -- Art and Literature -- Why Do We Need Masterpieces? -- Elpenor, the Emmaus Pilgrim and the Missing One. The Painting and the Historical Problem of Life Configuration -- The Rise and Fall of Objects and Their Relationship with Man -- Musil's Reconfiguring of Austria's (reluctant) Entry into Modernity -- About the Authors.