Coppedge considers what is missing from a common sense idea of government by interpreting the first two books of Paine's Common Sense for figments of an underlying technocratic idea. Weaving in glimpses of technical jargon from his own coherentist philosophy, he addresses an idea of modular government which accepts economic and technological success and the meaningful interests of its citizens as the standard of progress, both for the citizen, and for the governments role as a corporation of citizens. The result is democratic and poetic, and also futuristic. It is both political philosophy and an idea of philosophy's ultimate importance.