My sincere thanks are due to The Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, who granted me a Fellowship that enabled me to write this book. I am most grateful for the hospitality and support given to me by all the staff and for the magnificent organisation provided by Sanford Budick. I benefited greatly from talks with other fellows, and in particular from my discussions with Stanley Cavell.

My thanks also to Cambridge University Press, and in particular to Professor Peter Stern, who first approached me with the idea for the book, and to Terence Moore, who welcomed it despite its maverick nature.

Finally, once again I am deeply indebted to David Henry Wilson for rendering my German into readable English.

For the sake of easy access, I have quoted from readily obtainable editions of Sterne and Locke: all Tristram Shandy references are to the Signet Classic edition, New York 1980, with an afterword by Gerald Weales, (quoted by book, chapter, page), while those to Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding are based on John W. Yalton's edition, Everyman's Library, London 1971, (quoted by book, chapter, paragraph).