Richard Mason (1948-2006) was a Fellow of Wolfson College at Cambridge. He is the author of Understanding Understanding and Before Logic, both also published by SUNY Press, and The God of Spinoza.

Introduction

1. The Value in a Story

2. A Point of Choice?

3 One Large Fact

4. Curiosity

5. Responsibility

6. Irreversible Change

7. Purity

8. The Lessons of History