The new metaphysics presented in this article is more indebted to the metaphysics of Ayn Rand than to any other. The author's system is a transfiguration of hers at the deepest level. The differences and commonalities with Rand's fundamentals are explicated and argued. Her fundamentals and the author's are set in their relations to others, ancient to modern.

This article closely compares the opposing foundations of theoretical philosophy in René Descartes and Ayn Rand. The developmental course of Rand's foundations, with their continual opposition to Descartes, is tracked. Arguments particularly against Descartes are assembled in this article, and the bountiful contemporary scholarship on Descartes is engaged.