We open this section with an examination of the meaning of metatheory and its place in political economic theory. We then briefly review the historic role of, what we shall choose to call, the mechanical world view and the legislated intellectuality of the cultural west. We shall argue that the mechanical world view is intimately associated with and substantiated by the Cartesian quest for simplicity rather than the traditional philosophical search for truth. This leads us to an admittedly partial review of what we shall refer to as Cartesian economics. Having established in the foregoing the kernel of mechanicalism's metatheory we turn, in the Knights of Totality, to consider the counter current to the Cartesian mechanicalism. Though it is perhaps banal to note that despite the advances of the Knights of Totality, today we still find ourselves in the orbit Cartesian thought. Herein the problem of the hegemony of disciplinary economic thinking and thought is that it is legislative and enters into the politics of truth. Though as political economists we seldom refer to ourselves as philosophers, we nonetheless ask: “what is the meaning of knowledge of human livelihood?” If our concern is with truth, then we are philosophers, however reluctant we may be to bear that badge.