Nicholas Rescher (born July 15, 1928 in Hagen, Germany) is an American philosopher, affiliated for many years with the University of Pittsburgh, where he is currently University Professor of Philosophy and Chairman of the Center for the Philosophy of Science. is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Hagen is the 37th largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related, doctoral/research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ...

Career

Rescher obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University in 1951, the youngest person—22 at the time—ever to do so in that department [1] He is among the most prolific of contemporary scholars, having written about 400 articles and 100 books, ranging over many areas of philosophy, over a dozen of which have been translated into other languages. Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ...

He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984 and the American Catholic Philosophical Society's Aquinas medal in 2007. He has served as a President of the American Philosophical Association, American Catholic Philosophy Association, American G. W. Leibniz Society, C. S. Peirce Society, and the American Metaphysical Society. He has held visiting lectureships at Oxford, Constance, Salamanca, Munich, and Marburg, and his work has been recognized by seven honorary degrees from universities on three continents. Rescher serves on the editorial board of Process Studies, the principle academic journal for both process philosophy and theology. The American Philosophical Association is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. ... Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. ... Process theology (also known as neoclassical theology) is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). ...

Ideas

Rescher has written on a wide range of topics, including logic, epistemology, the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and the philosophy of value. He is best known as an advocate of pragmatism and, more recently, of process philosophy. Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ... It has been suggested that Meta-epistemology be merged into this article or section. ... Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, especially in the natural sciences and social sciences. ... Plato and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Pragmatism is a philosophic school that originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Sanders Peirce, who first stated the pragmatic maxim. ... Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. ...

Over the course of his six decade research career, Rescher has established himself as a systematic philosopher of the old style, and the author of a system of pragmatic idealism which combines elements of continental idealism with American pragmatism. To this end, he: This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedias quality standards. ... Pragmatism is a philosophic school that originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Sanders Peirce, who first stated the pragmatic maxim. ...

• Has developed a system of pragmatic idealism, in which the activity of the human mind makes a positive and constitutive contribution to knowledge, and "valid" knowledge contributes to practical success;
• Defends a coherence theory of truth in a manner differing somewhat from that of classical idealism; see e.g. his exchange in The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard (in the Library of Living Philosophers series);
• Advocates ^[1] an "erotetic propagation" of science, asserting that scientific inquiry will continue without end because each newly answered question adds a presupposition for at least one more open question to the current body of scientific knowledge.

Apart from this larger program, Rescher has made significant contributions to: For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη, Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey. ... Coherentism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Percy Brand Blanshard (August 27, 1892, Fredericksburg, Ohio – 1987) was an American philosopher known primarily for his defense of reason. ... The Library of Living Philosophers is a series of books conceived of and started by Paul Arthur Schilpp in 1939; Schilpp remained editor until 1981. ...

• Historical studies on Leibniz, Kant, Charles Peirce, and on the medieval Arabic theory of modal syllogistic and logic.
• Logic (the conception autodescriptive systems of many-sided logic);
• The theory of knowledge (epistemetrics as a quantitative approach in theoretical epistemology);
• The philosophy of science (the theory of a logarithmic returns in scientific effort).

Rescher has also contributed to futuristics, and with Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey, invented the Delphi method of forecasting. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Futures studies reflects on how today’s changes (or the lack thereof) become tomorrow’s reality. ... The Delphi method has been an anticipatory thinking (futures) technique aimed at building an agreement, or consensus about an opinion or view, without necessarily having people meet face to face, such as through surveys, questionnaires, e-mails etc. ...

Partial bibliography

OUP = Oxford University Press. PUP = Princeton University Press. SUNY Press = State University of New York Press. UPA = University Press of America. UPP = University of Pittsburgh Press.

• 1964. The Development of Arabic Logic. UPP.
• 1968. Studies in Arabic Philosophy. UPP.
• 1977. Methodological Pragmatism: A Systems-Theoretic Approach to the Theory of Knowledge. Basil Blackwell; New York University Press.
• 1978. Scientific Progress: A Philosophical Essay on the Economics of Research in Natural Science. UPP
• 1982 (1973). The Coherence Theory of Truth. UPA.
• 1982 (1969). Introduction to Value Theory. UPA.
• 1983. Risk: A Philosophical Introduction to the Theory of Risk Evaluation and Management. UPA.
• 1985. The Strife of Systems: An Essay on the Grounds and Implications of Philosophical Diversity. UPP.
• 1988. Rationality. OUP.
• 1989. Cognitive Economy: Economic Perspectives in the Theory of Knowledge. UPP.
• 1989. A Useful Inheritance: Evolutionary Epistemology in Philosophical Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield.
• 1990. Human Interests: Reflections on Philosophical Anthropology. Stanford University Press.
• 1993. Pluralism: Against the Demand for Consensus. OUP.
• A System of Pragmatic Idealism
  • 1991. Volume I: Human Knowledge in Idealistic Perspective. PUP.
  • 1992. Volume II: The Validity of Values: Human Values in Pragmatic Perspective. PUP.
  • 1994. Volume III: Metaphilosophical Inquiries. PUP.
• 1995. Luck. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
• 1995. Essays in the History of Philosophy. UK: Aldershot.
• 1995. Process Metaphysics. SUNY Press.
• 1996. Instructive Journey: An Autobiographical Essay. UPA.
• 1998. Complexity: A Philosophical Overview. Transaction Publishers.
• 1999. Kant and the Reach of Reason. Cambridge University Press.
• 1999. Realistic Pragmatism: An Introduction to Pragmatic Philosophy. SUNY Press.
• 1999 (1984). The Limits of Science. UPP.
• 2000. Nature and Understanding: A Study of the Metaphysics of Science. OUP.
• 2001. Paradoxes: Their Roots, Range, and Resolution. Open Court Publishing.
• 2001. Process Philosophy: A Survey of Basic Issues. UPP.
• 2003. Epistemology: On the Scope and Limits of Knowledge. SUNY Press.
• 2003. On Leibniz. UPP.
• 2004. Epistemic Logic. UPP.
• 2005. Metaphysics: The Key Issues from a Realist Perspective. Prometheus Books.
• 2005. Reason and Reality: Realism and Idealism in Pragmatic Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield.
• 2005-2006. Collected Papers in 14 vols. Ontos Verlag.
• 2006. Epistemetrics. Cambridge University Press.
• 2006. Conditionals. MIT Press.
• 2007. Error: On Our Predicament When Things Go Wrong. UPP.

Eponymous concepts

• Logic: Rescher quantifier
• Non-classical logic: Dienes-Rescher inference engine (also Rescher-Dienes implication); Rescher-Manor consequence relation
• Paraconsistent logic: Rescher-Brandom semantics
• Temporal logic: Rescher operator
• Scientometrics: Rescher's Law of logarithmic returns
• Distributive justice: Rescher's effective average measure
• Dialectics: Rescher's theory of formal disputation

Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ... Classical logic identifies a class of formal logics that have been most intensively studied and most widely used. ... An inference engine tries to derive answers from a knowledge base. ... A paraconsistent logic is a logical system that attempts to deal nontrivially with contradictions. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... In logic, the term temporal logic is used to describe any system of rules and symbolism for representing, and reasoning about, propositions qualified in terms of time. ... In mathematics, an operator is a function that performs some sort of operation on a number, variable, or function. ... Scientometrics is the science of measuring and analysing science. ... Distributive justice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Broadly speaking, a dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a disagreement. ... In the scholastic system of education of the middle ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in other sciences. ...

References

• Robert Almeder ed., 1982. Praxis and Reason: Studies in the Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America) A collection of critical and expanding essa ys with brief replies by Resceher. The contributors include: Timo Airaksinen, Robert Almeder, Antonio Cua, John E. Hare, Risto Hilpinen, John Kekes, Gerald J. Massey, Jack W. Meiland, Mark Pastin, Friedrick Rapp, James Sterba, and Dennis Temple.
• Bottani, Andrea, 1989. Verità e Coerenza: Suggio su’ll epistemologia coerentista di Nicholas Rescher (Milano: Franco Angeli Liberi). A systematic study of Rescher’s coherence theory of truth.
• Carrier, Martin et. al., eds., 2000. Science at the Century’s End: Philosophical Questions on the Progress and Limits of Science (Pittsburgh and Konstanz: University of Pittsburgh Press and University of Konstanz Press). Pp. 40-134 contains a symposium devoted to NR’s work on the Limits of Science with contributions by Robert Almeder, Laura Ruetsche, Juergen Mittelstrass, and Martin Carrier.
• Coomann, Heinrich, 1983. Die Kohaerenztheorie der Wahrheit: Eine kritische Darstellung der Theorie Reschers von Ihrem historischen Hintergrund (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang).
• Marsonet, Michele, 1995. The Primacy of Practical Reason: An Essay on Nicholas Rescher’s Philosophy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America).
• Moutafakis, Nicholas J., 2007. Rescher on Rationality, Values, and Social Responsibility (Frankfurt: ONTOS Verlag).
• Murray, Paul D., 2004. Reason, Truth and Theology in Pragmatist Perspective (Leuven: Peeters). A theological study largely devoted to NR’s ideas.
• Nabavi, Lotfallah, 2003. Avicennan Logic Based on Nicholas Rescher’s Point of View (Tehran: Scientific and Cultural Publication Co.).
• Ernest Sosa ed., 1979. The Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher (Dordrecht: D. Reidel). A collection of critical essays with brief replies by Rescher. The contributors include: Annette Baier, Stephen Barker, Nuel D. Belnap, Jr., Laurence BonJour, Robert E. Butts, Roderick M. Chisholm, L. Jonathan Cohen, Jude J. Dougherty, Brian Ellis, R.M. Hare, Hide Ishiguro, Georg H. von Wright, and John W. Yolton.
• Weber, Michael, ed., 2004. After Whitehead: Rescher and Process Philosophy (Frankfurt: ONTOS Verlag).
• Wüstehube, Axel, and Michael Quante, eds., 1998. Pragmatic Idealism: Critical Essays on Nicholas Rescher’s System of Pragmatic Idealism (Amsterdam: Rodopi). Critical essays on NR’s “Pragmatic Idealism” trilogy by eighteen contemporary philosophers in Europe and the USA.

Ernest Sosa is currently the Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Theology and Professor of Philosophy at Brown University, Rhode Island and regular visiting professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. ... (Laurence) Jonathan Cohen FBA (7 May 1923-26 September 2006) was a British philosopher. ... R.M. Hare Richard Mervyn Hare (March 21, 1919 – January 29, 2002) was an English moral philosopher, who held the post of Whites Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1966 until 1983. ...

External link

• Rescher's web page, with complete bibliography.