Bücher von Nicholas Rescher

The book presents a detailed examination of many key aspects of philosophizing, ranging from the mission of philosophy, its method, its dialectic, and its epistemology. It conveys to the reader, student and scholar alike, a clear account of the aspirations and potential of the discipline. Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of the promise and challenges of philosophizing.

The book¿s dealings with the unknowable must address the question of whether its focus of concern is with the problematic nature of the unknowns themselves or with the problematic nature of our knowledge of them? Are we engaging ontology or epistemology? The answer is that in this context there is no separating them. In this context of cognitive objects as such we cannot deal with the objects independently of their relating to our knowledge of them. Consider an analogy. Give the finitude of human existence and the limitations of our means of communication, there is going to be a largest integer that will ever be considered specifically, individually, and by name. We know on general principles that, being an integer, this number must be either odd or even. And yet given its lack of identifiability, the question of which (odd or even) is irresolvable. We know on general principles that it is one or the other, but do not¿and in the nature of the situation cannot¿determine which. Given its specification, its identity of necessity unspecifiable. The identity it doubtless has remains inaccessible to us. Here there is our present task¿an investigation into our knowledge of the unknowable.

This book presents a retrospect of the author`s contacts and interactions with a wide array of philosophical contemporaries. The people of one¿s life come in a series of circles. One¿s identity comes to be shaped through interactive membership in all of them. Beginning at Princeton in 1950, Nicholas Rescher is still engaged in teaching philosophy continuing an active career extending to 68 years. During this time he has published well over 100 books and served as president of five major American philosophical societies. In the course of his unusually long career he has been in productive contact with scores of philosophers, scholars, and scientists, and the present book surveys his interactions with many of those who have left their mark on this work and thought. A book which, like this, deals with encounters between its author and others is bound to have a dual aspect. As far as its author goes, it is substantially autobiographic. But, as far as its subjects are concerned, in dealing with their impact upon others, it affords some raw material for the biographer who seeks to depict their subject¿s role in the larger scheme of things.

The Rescher family emerged from the fog of historical obscurity in the area of the Lake of Constance in the middle of the 17th Century. They were founders of the Israelite community that thrived in Hochberg from 1750 to 1850 and their fate typified that of their Swabian corrrelegionsts in a rise to prosperity and Germanification. However, as of the 1850s most persons bearing the family name crossed the Atlantic and by the time of Nazi Germany all living members had become part of American Christendom, with the unlikely exception of the eminent orientalist Oskar Rescher, but subsequently Osman Re¿er, living in Istanbul as a convert to Islam.

The book provides a view of the extraordinary people¿philosophers, scientists, and scholars¿whom the author encountered in Princeton in the years 1949-1952. It gives some account of who they were, what they did, and how they provided the author with incentive and inspiration. The 1950s were of another era, and the Princeton of the day was another world. As a young scholar in those days, the author came into contact with many interesting people, including Einstein, Gödel, and von Neumann. The book describes how these encounters occurred and what impression they left.

The best and most instructive way to learn about philosophy is by examining the history of the field. For it is here that we come to see how its particulars are identified and addressed by some of humankind's sharpest intellects. Philosophy began hundreds of years BCE, and by now has grown to a scope and scale beyond acceptability by any single mind. But a sampling of episodes and issues can convey some idea of the nature of the field. And it is with this goal in view-clarifying the detail of some key philosophical issues-that these studies are being put into print. It is the aim of these forays into philosophical history to illustrate how contemporary perspectives, methods, and instruments of analysis can clarify some of the key philosophical teachings both by highlighting the difficulties they encounter and by providing instructive means for addressing them.

More than two centuries after his death, the influence of Immanuel Kant continues to loom large on the philosophical scene. The essays collected in the book consider various key aspects of his many-sided philosophical work. Addressing issues on metaphysics, epistemology, and metaphilosophy, they represent their authors multi-decade preoccupation with the thought and influence of this monumental philosopher.

It has been said, and may well be true, that Leibniz is the smartest person who ever lived. And there is no question but that he ranks high among mankind's small number of universal geniuses who made strikingly original contributions in every then-existing field of learning. The studies that are brought together here are new and heretofore unpublished investigations of various prominent and characteristic ideas in Leibniz's philosophy. They contribute new pieces to the virtually unending panorama that constitutes our understanding of Leibniz's multifaceted thought.

Develops a general theory of prediction that encompasses its fundamental principles, methodology, and practice and gives an overview of its promises and problems.

This book examines the nature, sources, and implications of fallacies in philosophical reasoning. There is widespread interest in the practice and products of philosophizing, yet the important issue of fallacious reasoning in these matters has been effectively untouched.

This book covers a varied spectrum of ethical topics, ranging from the fundamental considerations regarding ethical values, to the rationale of obligation, and the ethical management of societal and personal affairs.

Since the late 1960's Professor Rescher has carried on a series of investigations in value theory in an endeavor to clarify the nature of values and the ways in which they impact on human affairs. This book collects together some dozen of these studies in a way that showcases the author's characteristic perspective on this important range of basic philosophy issues. It bring clearly to view the author's characteristic combinations of analytical accuracies within a broad luminative outlook.

The book collects together various studies on issues of moral philosophy which the author has contributed to the professional literature of the subject over the years. Covering a wide range from the human condition at large and the foundation of justice questions of economics and professional responsibility, it illustrates from varying viewpoints the author¿s characteristic method of elucidating technical details by theoretical analysis.