Ludwig Wittgenstein established a "cool" stance for philosophy: contemplating the world without meddling in it. D.Z. Phillips explores this position, focusing on its implications for philosophical authorship and the philosophical investigation of the nature of reality.

Influenced by the views of Wittgenstein and his pupil Rush Rhees, Phillips - who is one of Rhees's own students - first contrasts Wittgenstein's methods with Kierkegaard's religiously oriented dialectic. He describes the difficulty in sustaining a contemplative view of philosophy and discusses efforts to go beyond it in the work of Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Annette Baier, and Martha Nussbaum, who, in different ways, propose to make philosophy a guide to living.