ABSTRACT
Theoretical systems deserve appraisal by criteria of adequacy and coherence that their own makers would accept; and a negative verdict on one ontology does not foreclose the need for sympathetic criticism of others on their own merits. A man is free to construct whatever myths he finds illuminating; yet the psychoanalysis of metaphysics casts a murky light. The literary Freudianism that has become the opium of the intellectuals is too automatic in its application: a license to find sexuality everywhere is useless. When the principle of causality is identified with the biological platitude that a child needs two parents, the philosophy of philosophy runs a risk of being reclassified as fiction.
