ABSTRACT
The account of the philosopher's task they provide is ambiguous, for the claim that the philosopher should investigate the structure of being with a view to throwing light on the conditions of the possibility of experience is construed by Tillich in two quite different ways. According to the alternative interpretation of Tillich's question about the 'structure' which 'makes experience possible', this 'structure' does not inform the objects of experience at all; rather it is the ground of the distinction between the experiencing subject and what he experiences. The last criticism is decisive from the point of view of the attempt to determine whether Tillich succeeds in rendering plausible the contention that the question about what makes experience possible is an ontological question. Tillich's question about the basic ontological structure thus cannot be identical with his question about the conditions of experience.
