In this book, Rosen enters into a debate with Heidegger in order to provide a justification for metaphysics. Rosen presents a fresh interpretation of metaphysics that opposes the traditional doctrines attacked by Heidegger, on the one hand, and by contemporary philosophers influenced by Heidegger, on the other. He refutes Heidegger's claim that metaphysics (or what Heidegger calls Platonism) is derived from the Aristotelian science of being as being. He argues indeed that metaphysics is simply the commonsensical reflection on the nature of ordinary experience and on the standards of living a better life.

Rosen uses his critique of Heidegger to suggest the next step in philosophy: that technical precision and speculative metaphysics be unified in what he calls a "step downward into the rich air of everyday life."