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	Nicholas Rescher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		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 Philosophy of Science.
		Rescher obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University in 1951, the youngest person—he was 22 at the time—ever to do so.
		Rescher has written on a wide range of topics, including logic, epistemology, the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and the philosophy of value.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Nicholas_Rescher (482 words)

	Nicholas Rescher - Value Matters: Studies in Axiology - Reviewed by Rob Lawlor, University of Reading - Philosophical ...
		Rescher's insight then is to insist that if the coherence account can bridge the gap in the case of epistemology it must be able to do so in the case of value judgements too.
		Rescher assumes that this will optimise success in the moral case, but he does not explain why this wouldn't be the case in the case of epistemic credit.
		Rescher begins this chapter by considering the possibility that reality could be such that we could not understand it or explain it: "nature must operate in such a way as to be 'user friendly' to intelligent enquiring beings if they are to be able to penetrate at least some of its salient features." (p.
	ndpr.nd.edu /review.cfm?id=2481 (2262 words)

	Philosophy Now
		As Rescher remarks, the early 20th century came to distrust the grandiose Victorian systems, such as the ‘absolute idealism’ of Bradley and his contemporaries, with their claim to understand the complete system of the world.
		As a result, Rescher argues, a variety of pragmatic considerations enter into the construction of scientific and philosophical theories, such as “simplicity, uniformity, regularity, analogy, and the like” (p.176), to guide our dialectical reasoning, while systematic understanding remains the criterion of truth, and foundationalism is rejected totally.
		The rejection of foundationalism is important to Rescher’s approach to philosophical reasoning, and he develops this rejection of foundationalism in the way of Bradley, with Bradley’s own emphasis on the ambiguity of ‘facts.’ This enables an idealist to defend idealism against Russell’s (and most people’s) main objection to the idealist’s theory of truth.
	www.philosophynow.org /issue47/47thomas.htm (1521 words)

	Michel Weber (ed.) - After Whitehead: Rescher on Process Metaphysics - Reviewed by Joseph A. Bracken, Xavier University ...
		Lieven Decock (Netherlands) likewise thinks that Rescherâs focus on the distinction between substance and process-oriented philosophies in Chapter Two is mistaken and suggests instead that the true sparring partner to process thought is mathematics since mathematical formulas have classically been conceived as time invariant or resistant to processual modes of thought.
		Rescherâs response to his critics in the final section of the book is understandably limited in view of their numbers and the range of their arguments.
		Rescher favors process âall the way down,â although he concedes that at any given level of complexity one may treat the basic components as elementary and thus as indecomposable for the purposes of empirical investigation.
	ndpr.nd.edu /review.cfm?id=1018 (1950 words)

	Theology Today - Vol 43, No. 2 - July 1986 - BOOK NOTES - Pascal's Wager: A Study of Practical Reasoning in ...
		Nicholas Rescher's book is distinctive in that it takes Pascal seriously as a philosopher in light of past and present theological modes of argumentation.
		Rescher's fundamental thesis is that Pascal promotes a basic shift in theological argumentation-a shift from theoretical proof and demonstration of facts concerning God to practical justification of trust and hope (i.e.
		Rescher's sophisticated treatment of Pascal is significant in that he historicizes Pascal's thought without rendering Pascal a vulgar historicist.
	theologytoday.ptsem.edu /jul1986/v43-2-booknotes1.htm (621 words)

	Salon People \| What's luck got to do with it? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Rescher's inquiry into luck led him from an examination of common expressions that invoke luck, to cutting-edge ideas in mathematics and physics.
		Whatever you call it, Rescher insists, we are all at the mercy of the great invisible combine of luck.
		Rescher differentiates luck from fate ("inexorable destiny") and suggests that, elusive as it is, "the tiger of luck can be tamed." One way to make a pussycat out of that tiger is by simply putting yourself at risk.
	www.salon.com /people/feature/1999/11/22/luck (1082 words)

	On Rescher On Pascal's Wager
		So, Rescher's assessment of the worth of Pascal's Wager argument is this: The argument is intended to be directed towards people who already hold certain assumptions, and to convince these people that they ought to believe in God.
		True, Rescher does overlook the fact that "non-zero" and "finite" are not coextensive--but all this shows is that the class of people who will be untouched by the argument must be extended to include: (vii) cautious sceptics who are not prepared to assign a finite value to the probabilty that the Christian God exists.
		What Rescher suggests is that the validity of the argument suffices to show that it is a good argument when directed to people who accept all of the premises of that argument.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/graham_oppy/rescher.html (3231 words)

	Peirce's Philosophy of Science by Nicholas Rescher, Review by Bobby Matherne
		Rescher posits that the application of quantitative induction to the area of hypotheses, i.e., qualitative induction, will produce a valid qualitative inductive method by the means of statistically weeding out the failed theories.
		Rescher devotes some attention to the plausibility of such a process producing useful theories within an attainable period of time.
		Rescher gives only scant mention of Thomas Kuhn's work, not even a bibliographical reference to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions published some 15 years before this book.
	www.doyletics.com /arj/peircesp.htm (624 words)

	Pitt Campaign Chronicle: Center for Philosophy of Science Honors Nicholas Rescher with Workshop
		In 2001, Rescher will celebrate his 50th anniversary as philosophy teacher, his 40th anniversary as a member of the Pitt faculty and of the center, and his 30th anniversary as a professor of philosophy.
		From his early, well-respected book on Leibniz to his recent, massive systematic treatise on pragmatic idealism, Rescher has made significant contributions in every major area of intellectual endeavor,” said Peter Machamer, professor of philosophy, who is coordinating the conference.
		Rescher has served as chairman of the Department of Philosophy, and is vice chairman of the Center for the Philosophy of Science.
	www.umc.pitt.edu /media/pcc010212/rescher.html (368 words)

	Rescher, N.: A System of Pragmatic Idealism, Volume III: Metaphilosophical Inquiries.
		Rescher's numerous books and articles, which address almost every major philosophical topic, reflect a unified approach: the combination of pragmatism and idealism characteristic of his thinking throughout his career.
		The initial volume in the series was dedicated to epistemology, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of nature, while the second dealt with issues of value theory, ethics, and practical philosophy.
		In Volume III Rescher examines the nature of philosophical inquiry itself, seeking to affirm the classical conception of philosophy as a significant problem-solving enterprise that draws on the whole range of human experience to attempt to resolve the "big questions."
	www.pupress.princeton.edu /titles/5517.html (233 words)

	Review
		Rescher strives to achieve this balancing-trick by emphasising the central role of 'interpretability' or understanding, rather than cognitive agreement, in matters of communication, and of 'acquiescence' rather than practical conformity in our social and political interactions.
		Critical to the success of Rescher's approach is his ability to argue convincingly that, whether in matters of inquiry or in the realm of social activity, coordination and cooperation are possible despite disagreement over fact or value/differences in belief and evaluation.
		Rescher views the traditional 'sanctification' of consensus as 'the last stand in an ethos of democracy of a pre-democratic dirigisme - an insistence on social co-ordination that is unwilling to let people go their own way into a social diversification that affiliates each not to all but to such kindred spirits as circumstances may offer.'.
	www.btinternet.com /~a.mccallum/review.htm (712 words)

	Amazon.ca: Priceless Knowledge?: Natural Science in Economic Perspective: Books (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Nicholas Rescher argues that while there are no theoretical limits to natural science, we are limited by what we can afford to do.
		Rescher explores th exponential increase in resources necessary to accomplish growth in knowledge.
		Nicholas Rescher is university professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburph.
	www.amazon.ca /exec/obidos/ASIN/0847682447 (337 words)

	Prometheus Books
		Rescher achieves a remarkable synthesis that sensitively integrates Aristotelian realism with a Kantian justification of presuppositions about the existence of a common external world.
		In chapter after chapter, Rescher insists that nature is intelligible and that the intellect is powerful enough to ferret out the secrets of nature.
		Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh where he also serves as chair of the Center for Philosophy of Science.
	www.prometheusbooks.com /site/catalog/book_1776.html (419 words)

	Problems of Selecting Experts for Delphi Exercises (1972)
		Although the questions posed were identical to those of Rescher's generic Question 2, and comparable procedures were used throughout, the respondents were radically [122/123] different.
		For each of Rescher's 17 items (representing a value of American culture in the year 2000 A.D.), an opinion of the probable change in emphasis was elicited on a five-point scale, ranging from 1 (greatly increased emphasis) to 5 (greatly decreased emphasis) (Rescher, 1969, p.
		Rescher, Nicholas, "A Questionnaire Study of American Values by 2000 A.D." in K.
	www.wright.edu /~gordon.welty/AcadMgtJ_72.htm (1416 words)

	UCL/ISP - N. Rescher's process thought (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		When, in 1996, Nicholas Rescher's Process Metaphysics was published by SUNY, it was widely acclaimed as a major step towards the academic recognition of a “mode of thought” that has otherwise been confined within quite sharp scholarly boundaries-if not sometimes despised.
		Rescher is the first to acknowledge this; and most of the critical papers below cast some adventurous light on the debate.
		Rescher est un auteur considérable : plus de septante livres couvrant des domaines aussi variés que la philosophie de la logique (et son histoire), la théorie de la connaisance, la philosophie de la technoscience, l'anthropologie, la philosophie sociale et politique, la métaphysique et la philosophie de la religion.
	www.isp.ucl.ac.be:16080 /staff/weber/rescher/rescher.html (1093 words)

	KLI Theory Lab - Authors - Nicholas Rescher
		Rescher, N. A Useful Inheritance: Evolutionary Aspects of the Theory of Knowledge.
		Rescher, N. Peirce's Philosophy of Science: Critical Studies in his Theory of Induction and Scientific Method.
		Rescher, N. Oppenheim, P. Logical analysis of Gestalt concepts.
	www.kli.ac.at /theorylab/AuthPage/R/RescherN.html (103 words)

	Nicholas Rescher (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Nicholas Rescher (Philosophy; Ph.D., Princeton; logic, philosophy of science, history of philosophy; Aristotle; Arabic philosophy) is University Professor of Philosophy.
		He came to the University in 1961, has served as chairman of the department, and is vice chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science.
		Honorary degrees have been awarded to Professor Rescher by Loyola University of Chicago, Lehigh University, the Argentine National University of Cordoba, and the University of Konstanz, as well as his alma mater, Queens College of the City University of New York.
	www.chronos.msu.ru /biographies/rescher.html (179 words)

	EJAP 1:1 August 1993: Norman Swartz Article
		In it, Rescher echoes approvingly Heidegger's claim that this is `the most fundamental question of metaphysics' and accordingly undertakes (what he has described privately {2} as) a `thought experiment', presumably to see for his own curiosity what an answer along certain lines would look like.
		Or perhaps, even should `empty solutions' exist, they might be highly unstable; the protolaws would then be such that, under their aegis, an existentially empty state of things is inherently liable to undergo a phase transition, having a natural inclination to slip over into an `occupied' condition.
		According to Rescher's account, protolaws are `already' or `antecedently' (in some timeless sense) true, {8} and it is because these laws are true that the world is the way it is, including, in his latest theory, that the world includes material objects.
	ejap.louisiana.edu /EJAP/1993.august/swartz.html (3709 words)

	Nicholas Rescher: biography and encyclopedia article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Nicholas Rescher (born July 15, EHandler: no quick summary.
		Rescher also defends a coherence theory of truth coherentism quick summary:
		Coherentism is belief in the coherence theory of justification - an epistemological theory opposing foundationalism and offering a solution to the regress...
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/n/ni/nicholas_rescher.htm (783 words)

	Amazon.com: Introduction to Value Theory (Upa Nicholas Rescher Series): Books: Nicholas Rescher (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		A reprint of the popular 1969, Prentice-Hall edition, the principal innovation of this philosophical introduction to value theory is its focus upon "values" as they are dealt with in everyday life situations, and have sometimes been studied by sociologists and social psychologists, rather than upon "value" as has been standard in the philosophical tradition.
		The result is a book suitable as a textbook for upper-class and graduate courses in the theory of values and as supplementary material for both courses in normative ethics and foundations-oriented courses in economic theory.
		Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
	www.amazon.com /exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0819124745?v=glance (486 words)

	Publisher description for Library of Congress control number 98131987 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		This is the second of the three volumes of A System of Pragmatic Idealism, a series that will synthesize the life's work of the philosopher Nicholas Rescher.
		Looking at issues of value theory, ethics, and practical philosophy, this second volume of the trilogy has as its theme the utility of values for a proper understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.
		Rescher's key thesis, which is argued from various angles and points of departure, is that rationality as such and in general is bound up with the theory and practice of rational evaluation.
	www.loc.gov /catdir/description/prin031/98131987.html (281 words)

	Scholastic Meditations
		Distinguished author and philosopher Nicholas Rescher suggests that the Scholastic era—the 500-year period from Abelard to Suarez—was a model of philosophical activity.
		Nicholas Rescher is professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
		A former president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, he is the author more than one hundred books in various areas of philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, value theory and social philosophy, logic, the philosophy of science, and the history of philosophy.
	cuapress.cua.edu /books/viewbook.cfm?Book=RESM (275 words)

	Oxford University Press: Pluralism: Nicholas Rescher (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Nicholas Rescher presents a critical reaction against two currently influential tendencies of thought.
		On the other hand, he opposes the rationalism inherent in neo-contractarian theory--both in the idealized communicative-contract version promoted in continental European political philosophy by Jnullrgen Habermas, and in the idealized social contract version of the theory of political justice promoted in the Anglo-American context by John Rawls.
		Against such tendencies, Rescher's pluralist approach takes a more realistic and pragmatic line, eschewing the convenient recourse of idealization in cognitive and practical matters.
	www.us.oup.com /us/catalog/general/subject/Philosophy/Social/~~/c2Y9YWxsJnNzPWF1dGhvciZzZD1hc2MmcGY9MTMwJnZpZXc9dXNhJnByPTEwJmJvb2tDb3ZlcnM9bnVsbCZjaT0wMTk4MjM2MDE4 (193 words)

	Alibris: Nicholas Rescher
		Rescher's numerous books and articles, which address almost every major philosophical topic, reflect a unified approach: the combination of pragmatism and idealism characteristic of his...
		Exploring the distinction between truth and plausibility, the author presents a standardized, straightforward approach for deciphering paradoxes -- one that can be applied to all their forms, whether clever wordplay or...
		Rescher's numerous books and articles, which address almost every major philosophical topic, reflect a unified approach: the combination of pragmatism and idealism characteristic of his thinking...
	www.alibris.com /search/books/author/Rescher,Nicholas (494 words)

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