Nicholas Rescher
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Rescher is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. In a productive research career extending over six decades, Rescher has established himself as a systematic philosopher of the old style and author of a system of pragmatic idealism which weaves together threads of thought from continental idealism and American pragmatism. He is the exponent of a realistic pragmatism which, rejecting the deconstructive approach of some recent pragmatists, construes pragmatic efficacy as an evidential index for such normative features as truth and validity rather than being a substitute or replacement for them. And apart from this larger program Rescher’s many-sided work has made significant contributions to logic (the conception autodescriptive systems of many-sided logic), to the history of logic (the medieval Arabic theory of modal syllogistic), to the theory of knowledge (epistemetrics as a quantitative approach in theoretical epistemology), to the philosophy of science (in particular it its economic aspects and as regards the relation of science and religion). Rescher has also worked in the area of futuristics, and along with Olaf Helmer
Olaf Helmer
Olaf Helmer was a German-American logician and futurologist. He was a researcher at the RAND Corporation from 1946 to 1968 and a co-founder of the Institute for the Future....

 and Norman Dalkey is co-inaugurator of the so-called Delphi method
Delphi method
The Delphi method is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts.In the standard version, the experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds...

 of forecasting. The Encyclopedia of Bioethics credits Rescher with writing one of the very first articles in the field.

One of the first among the increasing number of contemporary exponents of philosophical idealism, Rescher has been active in the rehabilitation of the coherence theory of truth and in the reconstruction of philosophical pragmatism in line with the idealistic tradition. He has pioneered the development of inconsistency-tolerant logics and, in the philosophy of science, the logarithmic retardation theory of scientific progress based on the epistemological principle that our knowledge in a field does not increase in proportion with the volume of information but only with its logarithm.

Career

Rescher came to the United States in 1938 at the age of nine. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during 1952-54, and during 1954-56 worked in the Mathematics Division of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. He obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in 1951, the youngest person—22 at the time—ever to do so in that department.http://www.pitt.edu/~rescher/

During his formative years, Rescher was a student of Carl Gustav Hempel
Carl Gustav Hempel
Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel was a philosopher of science and a major figure in 20th-century logical empiricism...

 in philosophy of science, of Alonzo Church
Alonzo Church
Alonzo Church was an American mathematician and logician who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. He is best known for the lambda calculus, Church–Turing thesis, Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem.-Life:Alonzo Church...

 in logic, Walter Terence Stace
Walter Terence Stace
Walter Terence Stace was a British civil servant, educator, philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, Mysticism, and Moral relativism...

 in metaphysics, and of Banesh Hoffmann
Banesh Hoffmann
Banesh Hoffmann was a British mathematician and physicist known for his association with Albert Einstein.-Life:Banesh Hoffmann was born in Richmond, England, on 6 September 1906...

 in differential geometry. In 1957-59 Rescher studied Arabic with S.D. Goiten at the University of Pennsylvania, and over the next four years he issued various publications about medieval Arabic Logic.

Rescher arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961 where has been a faculty member ever since. He is a former chair of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Philosophy and currently co-chairs the Center for Philosophy of Science with the status of Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy. Having begun his teaching career with a preceptorship at Princeton in 1960, he continues to be active in this role.

He is among the most prolific of contemporary scholars, having written about 400 articles and 100 books, ranging over many areas of philosophy. Works by Rescher have been translated into German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese. Rescher serves on the editorial board of some dozen academic professional publications, including Process Studies, the principal academic journal for process philosophy
Process philosophy
Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances...

 and theology
Process theology
Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and further developed by Charles Hartshorne . While there are process theologies that are similar, but unrelated to the work of Whitehead the term is generally applied to the...

. Some dozen books about Rescher’s work have appeared in English, German, and Italian and Arabic. For over three decades Rescher served as editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly
American Philosophical Quarterly
The American Philosophical Quarterly is a scholarly journal for the publication of work in philosophy. It was created in 1964 and is published quarterly by University of Illinois Press. Some significant contributors include John Rawls...

.

He has lectured at universities in many countries, and has held visiting lectureships at Oxford, Constance, Salamanca, Munich, and Marburg. He has held fellowships from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American
Philosophical Society. A former president of the American Philosophical
Association (Eastern Division), of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
American Catholic Philosophical Association
The American Catholic Philosophical Association is an organization of Catholic philosophers established in 1926 to promote the advancement of philosophy as an intellectual discipline consonant with Catholic tradition...

, of the Metaphysical Society of America
Metaphysical Society of America
The Metaphysical Society of America is a philosophical organization founded by Paul Weiss in 1950 for promoting the study of metaphysics. The society is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies...

, of the C. S. Peirce
Society, and of the G. W. Leibniz Society of America. Rescher has also
served as member of the Board of Directors of the International
Federation of Philosophical Societies, an organ of UNESCO. His contributions to philosophy have been recognized by honorary degrees awarded by eight universities on
three continents.

He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984, the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy
Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy
The Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy is a prize given to recognise the recipients contribution to International Philosophy. The prize is named after the eminent theologian Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier and has been won by Archbishop Fulton Sheen in 1923, John F. Wippel in 1981...

 in 2005, and the American Catholic Philosophical Society's Aquinas medal in 2007. In response to his substantial gift to its philosophy archive, the University of Pittsburgh established in 2010 a biennial Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy, to honor an internationally acknowledged contribution with a gold medal and an award of $25,000.

He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009 and is also a member of the Academia Europaea and of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2011 the German Federal Republic awarded Rescher its premier Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse) for his services to philosophy and to German-American collaboration in the field.

In 1968 Rescher married Dorothy Henle and they have three children, Mark (b. 1969), Owen (b. 1970), and Catherine (b. 1975). By an earlier marriage he also has a daughter Elizabeth (b. 1960). His life is detailed in an Autobiography (Frankfurt: ONTOS, 2007). He is a cousin of the eminent orientalist Oskar Rescher
Oskar Rescher
Oskar Rescher , aka Osman Reşer, was a prolific German-Turkish scholar in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature who specialized in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and Ottoman studies. In 1903 he began to study law in Munich but soon changed to Oriental languages...

.

Ideas

Rescher has written on a wide range of topics, including logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...

, epistemology, the philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...

, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

, and the philosophy of value
Value theory
Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why and to what degree people should value things; whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...

. He is best known as an advocate of pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...

 and, more recently, of process philosophy
Process philosophy
Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances...

.

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 that combines elements of continental idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...

 with American pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...

. To this end, he:
  • Projects a system of pragmatic idealism, in which the activity of the human mind
    Mind
    The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...

     makes a formative contribution to the substance of knowledge
    Knowledge
    Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

    , and "valid" knowledge contributes to practical success;
  • Defends a coherence theory of truth
    Coherentism
    There are two distinct types of coherentism. One refers to the coherence theory of truth. The other refers to the coherence theory of justification. The coherentist theory of justification characterizes epistemic justification as a property of a belief only if that belief is a member of a coherent...

     in a manner differing somewhat from that of classical idealism; see e.g. his exchange in The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard
    Brand Blanshard
    Percy Brand Blanshard was an American philosopher known primarily for his defense of reason. A powerful polemicist, by all accounts he comported himself with courtesy and grace in philosophical controversies and exemplified the "rational temper" he advocated.-Life:Brand Blanshard was born August...

     (in the Library of Living Philosophers
    Library of Living Philosophers
    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. The series was edited by Lewis Edwin Hahn from 1981 until 2001, and is currently edited by Randall Auxier...

     series);
  • Advocates 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.
  • Propounds an epistemic law of diminishing returns which holds that actual knowledge merely stands as the logarithm of the available information. This has the corollary that the comparative growth of knowledge is inversely propositional to the volume of information already at hand, so that when information grows exponentially, knowledge will grow at a merely linear rate.
  • Articulates a theory of axiogenesis which addresses some of the fundamental questions of philosophical metaphysics on the basis of value-eared considerations.


Apart from this larger program, Rescher has made significant contributions to:
  • Historical studies on Leibniz
    Gottfried Leibniz
    Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....

    , Kant
    Immanuel Kant
    Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

    , Charles Peirce, and on the medieval Arabic theory of modal syllogistic and logic
    Logic in Islamic philosophy
    Logic played an important role in Islamic philosophy .Islamic Logic or mantiq is similar science to what is called Traditional Logic in Western Sciences.- External links :*Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: , Routledge, 1998...

    .
  • The study of rational dialectic as a rhetorical and linguistic process.
  • 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).


One central theme of his thought is the role of unknowing, uncertainty, risk, and luck in human affairs. The resultant need for orientation and support amidst the challenges of life in conditions so largely beyond our control as a prime pillar of religion.

During the 1960s and 70s Rescher worked extensively in symbolic and philosophical logic, contributing various innovations in many-sided logic and temporal logic, including the conception of autodescriptive systems of many-valued logic. He has also contributed to futuristics, and with Olaf Helmer
Olaf Helmer
Olaf Helmer was a German-American logician and futurologist. He was a researcher at the RAND Corporation from 1946 to 1968 and a co-founder of the Institute for the Future....

 and Norman Dalkey, invented the Delphi method
Delphi method
The Delphi method is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts.In the standard version, the experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds...

 of forecasting.

A lifelong aficionado of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, Rescher has been instrumental in the reconstruction of Leibniz’s machina deciphratoria, an ancestor of the famous Enigma cipher machine.

Eponymous concepts

  • Logic
    Logic
    In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...

    : Rescher quantifier
  • Non-classical logic
    Classical logic
    Classical logic identifies a class of formal logics that have been most intensively studied and most widely used. The class is sometimes called standard logic as well...

    : Dienes-Rescher inference engine
    Inference engine
    In computer science, and specifically the branches of knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence, an inference engine is a computer program that tries to derive answers from a knowledge base. It is the "brain" that expert systems use to reason about the information in the knowledge base for...

     (also Rescher-Dienes implication); Rescher-Manor consequence relation
  • Paraconsistent logic
    Paraconsistent logic
    A paraconsistent logic is a logical system that attempts to deal with contradictions in a discriminating way. Alternatively, paraconsistent logic is the subfield of logic that is concerned with studying and developing paraconsistent systems of logic.Inconsistency-tolerant logics have been...

    : Rescher-Brandom semantics
    Semantics
    Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

  • Temporal logic
    Temporal logic
    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 a temporal logic we can then express statements like "I am always hungry", "I will eventually be hungry", or "I will be hungry...

    : Rescher operator
  • Scientometrics
    Scientometrics
    Scientometrics is the science of measuring and analysing science. In practice, scientometrics is often done using bibliometrics which is a measurement of the impact of publications. Modern scientometrics is mostly based on the work of Derek J. de Solla Price and Eugene Garfield...

    : Rescher's Law of logarithmic returns
  • Distributive justice
    Distributive justice
    Distributive justice concerns what some consider to be socially just allocation of goods in a society. A society in which incidental inequalities in outcome do not arise would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice...

    : Rescher's effective average measure
  • Dialectics: Rescher's theory of formal disputation
    Disputation
    In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences...


Works

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.
  • 1966. Galen and the Syllogism. 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.
  • 1998. Predicting The Future: An Introduction To The Theory Of Forecasting. SUNY Press
  • 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.
  • 2009. Aporetics. UPP.
  • 2009. Unknowable Facts. Lexington Books.
  • 2009. Free Will. Transaction Books.
  • 2009. Ignorance: On the Wider Implications of Deficient Knowledge. UPP.
  • 2009. Unknowability. Lexington Books.
  • 2009. Wishful Thinking and Other Philosophical Reflections. Ontos.
  • 2009. Epistemological Studies. Ontos.
  • 2010. Ideas in Process: A Study of the development of Philosophical Concepts. Ontos Verlag.
  • 2010. Studies in Quantitative Philosophy. Ontos Verlag.
  • 2010. Reality and Its Appearance. Continuum.
  • 2010. A Free Will Bibliography. Ontos. With Estelle Burris
  • 2010. Quantitative Philosophy. Ontos.
  • 2010. Philosophical Inquiries. University of Pittsburgh Press.
  • 2010. Infinite Regress. Transaction Books
  • 2010. Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism '. Lexington Books.
  • 2010. Studies in Quantitative Philosophy. Ontos.
  • 2010. Philosophical Textuality: Studies on Issued of Discourses in Philosophy. Ontos.
  • 2010. On rules and principles: A philosophical study of their nature and function. Ontos.
  • 2010. Finitude: A Study of Cognitive Limits and Limitations. Ontos.
  • 2010. Beyond Sets: A Venture in Collection-Theoretico Revisionism. Ontos. With Patrick Grim.
  • 2011. Philosophical Explorations. Ontos.

See also

  • American philosophy
    American philosophy
    American philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...

  • List of American philosophers
  • Delphi method
    Delphi method
    The Delphi method is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts.In the standard version, the experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds...

  • Vagrant predicate
    Vagrant predicate
    Vagrant predicates are logical constructions that exhibit an inherent limit to conceptual knowledge. Such predicates can be used in general descriptions but are self-contradictory when applied to particulars. For instance, there are numbers which have never been mentioned but no example can be...


External links

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