David Weissman is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York.

"This work is a brilliant interpretation of Western philosophy. It is original to the core. I was struck again and again by the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the work, matched by an equally extraordinary grasp of detail. The author has totally revised my way of reading philosophers as diverse as Whitehead and Quine. The work is philosophy at its best." — Andrew J. Reck"In my judgment, Weissman's work is as close to 'brilliance' as that by any contemporary philosopher whom I have read. His book is clear, crisp, profound. Weissman is 'easy reading,' something few authors accomplish in the difficult terrain of metaphysics and epistemology. The book is an in-depth defense of a realistic theory of knowledge. His thesis rings true against the backdrop of common sense, classical philosophy, and contemporary science. He has a solid grasp of the history of Western philosophy and he displays that learning on nearly every page. He uses historical figures to create a dialogue from which he produces his own insights." — Jude P. Dougherty

• Acknowledgments Introduction One. Method, Mind and Ontology 1. The alleged neutrality of philosophic method2. Descartes' method3. Functionalism4. Psychologism5. Descartes' intuitionism6. Plato and Descartes7. Descartes' notion of intuiting mind8. A different way of determining mind's features9. Is mind inspectable?10. The ontology of Descartes' method11. Does knowledge reach beyond our inspecting minds?12. God's role in Descartes' theory of knowledge13. The opposition of theory and method14. Method's ascendence over theory Two. The Dialectical Cycles of Intuitionist Method 1. A privileged sanctuary2. Four organizing notions3. Content and form4. The dialectical refinements of content and form5. The reciprocity of mind and experience6. Providing for content and form, mind and experience7. The justifications for intuitionist method8. Conclusions Three. Intuitionist Method's Defining Properties 1. The given2. Contingency and necessity3. The given is inspected4. Analysis and synthesis5. The temporality of things given6. Certainty7. Summary Four. The Intuitionist Ontology and Psychology 1. The intuitionist ontology2. The intuitionist psychology3. The alternative again Five. Topical Metaphysics: Cause and Effect 1. Systematic and topical metaphysics2. Two kinds of topical analysis3. Cause and effect as an example for topical analysis4. Hume's theory of cause and effect5. Unsatisfactory alternatives6. Some reasons for Providing a different theory of cause7. Two kinds of theory about causation8. A theory of cause alternative to Hume's9. Hume on stable systems and their causes10. Why we defer to Hume11. Some twentieth century Humean views about cause12. Whitehead's notion of cause13. Whitehead and Hume Six. Systematic Metaphysics: Mind's Appropriation of Being 1. Systematic metaphysics2. Two meanings of systematic3. The result to be explained4. A prescriptivist creation story5. Three features for which to provide when making a world6. Four additional questions7. Elevating the cogito to Godhood8. The more rigorous formulation of this result9. Idealism is the consequence of intuitionist method10. Why intuiting mind disappears11. Intuiting mind as the paradigm for reality12. An alternative to intuitionist idealism Notes Index