 3. This via media, this third way of doing philosophy, they found in the transcendental method. The two schools conceived of the transcendental method differently. For Cohen and his school, philosophy begins with a fact—paradigmatically, the fact of science—and investigates the conditions that make that fact possible. For Windelband and his school, the transcendental question is understood teleologically: given certain fundamental goals, such as knowing the truth, or doing good, or experiencing what is beautiful, what is necessary for achieving these values? Still, though, there was a common core to both schools’ conceptions of the transcendental method: they wanted to identify those objective elements within some part of human culture (say, physics, history, or ethics) that made possible objective validity (say, the objective validity of physical theories, historical narratives, or ethical claims). Adherence to the transcendental method led the Neo-Kantians to reject skepticism. Philosophical reflection begins with the fact that scientists have developed successful theories of the physical world; or with the universal validity of the value of truth. So no room is left for the skeptical worry that scientific theories do not in fact deliver empirical knowledge, or that truth is in fact unattainable (Windelband 1883: 280).