 The methodology that Hartmann recommends reflects the critical stance. In order to avoid precipitous standpoints, an unbiased philosophical inquiry moves through the three main stages of phenomenological, aporetic and theoretical development. The first stage is descriptive and requires the systematic collection of all the available evidence relevant to whatever is under scrutiny. Frequently, descriptions end up in conflicting theses, often in the form of aporias. More than anyone else, Hartmann rehabilitates the value of aporias (see Schlittmaier 2011 and Rescher 2011). Aporias themselves are informative and should not be forced to disappear by fiat, such as an a priori assumption on the overall uniformity of reality or the assumption that we have a direct, transparent access to reality. The last phase of the philosophical method consists in using as few metaphysical assumptions as possible for the systematic theoretical coordination of the results from the first two phases (ME, S). Metaphysical assumptions are necessary for the task of incorporating phenomena and aporias into a framework able to make sense of them. Since metaphysical assumptions are not directly supported by descriptive data, it is advisable to keep them to a minimum, or to assume the weakest possible metaphysical assumptions.