Hypothesis and the Spiral of Reflection

David Weissman is Professor of Philosophy at City College of New York. He is the author of Intuition and Ideality, also published by SUNY Press.

"It is without any doubt Weissman's most mature, richest work and builds nicely on his earlier volumes, especially Intuition and Ideality. It is downright delightful to see a careful thinker unabashedly engaged in the great speculative enterprise of metaphysics and to observe with what skill he avoids the minefields that had blown up his predecessors. Hypothesis and the Spiral of Reflection is an important book by a rapidly developing major voice in this country." — John Lachs, Vanderbilt University"Written with clarity and elegance, it is a well-argued defense of an important alternative to both analytic philosophy and phenomenology." —Panayot Butchvarov, The University of Iowa

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction One. The Spiral of Reflection 1. Maps, Plans, and Interpretations2. What is Missing in a Phenomenology of Experience3. Thought is Speculative4. The Maps of Practice as Extended and Tested Within Science5. The Beginnings of Metaphysics in Practice and Science6. Assigning Responsibility for a Comprehensive Account of Categorical Form7. A Theory of Categorical Form8. Confirming that a Theory of Categorical Form Applies to Human Beings9. Nature's Conditions10. Being11. Conclusion Two. The Intuitionist Alternative 1. The Intuitionist Notion of Reality and Inquiry2. "Empiricism" as a Kind of Intuitionism3. The Socialization and Autonomy of Intuiting Mind Three. Hypothesis 1. Interpretation2. Hypothesis3. Why We Need to Think Hypothetically4. The Metaphysical Uses of Hypothesis5. Hypothesis Used as Description and Explanations6. The Testing of Metaphysical Hypothesis7. Objections8. Conclusion Four. Sufficient Reason 1. Completeness2. Being as a Bounded Whole3. The Principle of Sufficient Reason, and Its Reformulation4. Proving That the Principle of Sufficient Reason is Valid5. A Conflict Between Metaphysics and Science6. An Error to be Averted7. Conclusion Five. Ontology 1. Thoughts or Sentences Representing Possible, Sometimes Actual, States of Affairs2. A Two-part Ontology3. Actuality and Possibility4. Alternative Ways of Accounting for Possibility5. Some Problematic Possibilities6. Conclusion Six. Hypothesizing Mind 1. Inferring From Mind's Activities to Its Character2. Vulnerability and Security3. Sources of Our Vulnerability4. Plan-directed Activity as a Security-enhancing Response to Vulnerability5. Submission and Control, Dependence and Self-sufficiency6. Provocations to Thought and Action7. Constraining Values and Ideals8. Cognitive-affective Balance9. Selfhood10. The Faculties Required for Making and Testing Hypotheses11. What Metaphysics Contributes to Our Well-being12. Conclusion Seven. A Forced Choice 1. Criteria for Deciding Between Intuition and Hypothesis2. Why Intuitionism Survives3. Alternative Methods Eight. Facts Obscured by Values Notes Index