Braver introduces a discussion of David Hume's insistence that the practices of ordinary life must ultimately trump any attempt to provide them with metaphysical foundations; the best we can do is to clarify that reason is an instinct that cannot ground or explain itself, and that this insight changes nothing in common life and experience. Braver thus invokes Hume to reinforce the deflationary spirit of his readings of Heidegger and Wittgenstein (and probably to show analytic philosophers that Heidegger can be read as a "philosopher" in their sense): "All three want to return us to what we already know in or usual comings and goings, by exposing reason's limitations -- its finitude, its dependence on factors that escape rational analysis or legitimation". This statement may be taken as the main point of the entire book.

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