The purpose of this volume moves in the direction of an investigation which we seek to emphasize the interest, fruitfulness and importance of other European philosophical traditions that focused on some specialized philosophical themes but at the same time contributed to the shaping of what we have called "criticai rationalism" Drawing on some previous contributions we wish to give, in this volume, an account of some of these philosophical voices by means of which one can identify a different and innovative overall conceptual mapping of the twentieth century in European philosophy. In such a way they brought out themes - often openly denied or opposed by neo-positivists - ranging from metaphysics to intentionality, to the role of the category of the whole, to that of the normative function of the constitution of objective scientific knowledge, from the philosophical interest in the dimensions of technology to the opportunity to develop a historical-objective transcendentalism, etc., as will be further delineated by the various contributions in this volume.