Understanding always involves a subject as the one who is understanding. To the extent that it concerns itself with questions of existence and reality, philosophical understanding involves subjectivity as a necessary dimension of the "content" of the understanding. In order to ask about the meaning of existence and being, the philosopher must place himself in a position to have access to such questions. The burden of this chapter will be to show that a concrete description and analysis of our experiencing self in its relations to the world and to other persons opens a unique and fruitful way to such questions. The effort, therefore, will be to uncover the meaning of the self, taking care not to disengage the self from the act of experiencing.