This book focuses on Russell's work from 1905 to 1919, during which period Russell attempted a reductionist analysis of empirical knowledge.

There is a prima facie conflict between Russell's empiricist task of grounding all knowledge claims in sense-data and his realist view of the independently existing physical world. It is to resolve this dilemma between empiricism and realism and to bridge the gap between perception and physical objects that Russell introduces constructionism.