Nicholas Rescher

Nicholas Rescher (; ; 15 July 1928 – 5 January 2024) was a German-born American philosopher and author who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961. He was chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science and chairman of the philosophy department. History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Public Affairs Quarterly. He died in Pittsburgh on January 5, 2024, at the age of 95.

Early life and education Rescher was born in Hagen in the Westphalia region of Germany. In his autobiography he traces his descent to Nehemias Rescher (1735–1801), a founder of the Hochberg-Remseck Jewish community in Swabian Germany. He relocated to the United States when he was 10 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1944. In 1949 he obtained a degree in mathematics at Queens College, New York, thereafter attending Princeton University and graduating with a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1951 at the age of 22, the youngest person to earn a Ph.D. in that department. He joined the philosophy department at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961, becoming the first associate director of its new Center for Philosophy of Science the following year. In 1964, he founded the American Philosophical Quarterly. From 1980 to 1981, Rescher served as the chairman of the philosophy department. In 2010, he donated his philosophy collection to the Hillman Library.

Philosophy Rescher's university biography describes his philosophical work thus: The original term he used for his system was conceptual idealism , an attempt to renew the idealist approach to knowledge in the domain of modern science.

In the mid and late 1960s, his studies were focused on medieval Arabic logic, but he soon broadened his areas of inquiry in metaphysics and epistemology, moving toward the methodological pragmatism he would define. In the 1970s, he began working more extensively with American pragmatism with a focus on the writings of C. S. Peirce, who was to number among his major influences. In 1966, Rescher collaborated with Herbert A. Simon on a ground-breaking paper on the theory of causality.

Rescher had contributed to futuristics, and with Olaf Helmer and , invented the Delphi method of forecasting. and the medieval Islamic theory of modal syllogistic.

Honors Rescher was honored for his work. In 1984, he received the Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship. asserted: Rescher's A Journey through Philosophy in 101 Anecdotes is a successful framework to reach a broader audience in the field. At first glance it seems an easy book to write. But at least in philosophy, it's easy to write in a complicated style and it's hard to write in a simple, clear, and readable fashion.

Prize and medal In 2010, the University of Pittsburgh created the Dr. Nicholas Rescher Fund for the Advancement of the Department of Philosophy which bestows the Nicholas Rescher Prize for Contributions to Systematic Philosophy. When the American Philosophical Association inaugurated its own Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy in 2018, the University of Pittsburgh redesignated its award as the Rescher Medal.

Eponymous concepts Formal 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 Theory of luck: Rescher's luck equation

Membership in learned societies Academia Europaea: European Academy of Arts and Sciences Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences American Academy of Arts and Sciences Institut international de philosophie Pennsylvania Academy of Science Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Royal Society of Canada

Selected works For a more complete list of publications (books) from 1960 to 2016, see the List of publications by Nicholas Rescher.

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. UCP = University of California Press.

1964. The Development of Arabic Logic. UPP. 1966. Galen and the Syllogism. UPP. 1966. The Logic of Commands. Dover Publications, New York, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. 1967. Studies in Arabic Philosophy. UPP. 1968. Topological Logic 1969. Introduction to Value Theory. (Reissued 1982) UPA. 1973. The Coherence Theory of Truth. (Reissued 1982) UPA. 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 1983. Risk: A Philosophical Introduction to the Theory of Risk Evaluation and Management. UPA. 1984. The Limits of Science. (Reissued 1999) UPP. 1985. The Strife of Systems: An Essay on the Grounds and Implications of Philosophical Diversity. UPP. 1987. Ethical Idealism : An Inquiry into the Nature and Function of Ideals. UCP 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. 1993 "In Matters of Religion," in Kelly James Clark, ed., Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of 11 Leading Thinkers, pp. 127–136. InterVarsity Press. 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. 1997. Predicting The Future: An Introduction To The Theory Of Forecasting. SUNY Press 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. 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. 2005. Epistemic Logic. UPP. 2005. Reason and Reality: Realism and Idealism in Pragmatic Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield. 2005–2006. Collected Papers in 10 vols. Ontos. 2006. Metaphysics: The Key Issues from a Realist Perspective. Prometheus Books. 2006. Epistemetrics. Cambridge University Press. 2006. Error: On Our Predicament When Things Go Wrong. UPP. 2007. Conditionals. MIT Press. 2007. Dialectics: A Classical Approach to Inquiry. Ontos. 2009. Aporetics. UPP. 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. 2010. Studies in Quantitative Philosophy. Ontos. 2010. Reality and Its Appearance. Continuum. 2010. A Free Will Bibliography. Ontos. With Estelle Burris 2010. Philosophical Inquiries. UPP. 2010. Infinite Regress. Transaction Books 2010. Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism. Lexington Books. 2010. Philosophical Textuality: Studies on Issues 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. On Certainty: And Other Philosophical Essays. Ontos. 2011. Philosophical Explorations. Ontos. 2011. Philosophical Episodes. Ontos. 2011. Productive Evolution. Ontos. 2012. Pragmatism. Transaction Books. 2012. Reflexivity. (With Patrick Grim) Ontos. 2012. On Explaining Existence. Ontos. 2012. Philosophische Vorsellungen. Ontos. 2012. Philosophical Deliberations. Ontos. 2012. On Leibniz. UPP. [Second, revised and expanded edition of the 2003 edition.] 2012. Epistemic Merit: And Other Essays in Epistemology. Ontos. 2013. On Leibniz: Expanded Edition. University of Pittsburgh Press. 2013. Reason and Religion. ONTOS. 2014. Philosophical Progress, And Other Philosophical Studies. De Gruyter. 2014. The Pragmatic Vision: Themes in Philosophical Pragmatism. Rowman & Littlefield. 2014. Logical Inquiries. De Gruyter. 2014. The Vagaries of Value: Basic Issued in Value Theory. Transaction. 2014. Metaphilosophy. Lexington Books. 2015. A Journey through Philosophy in 101 Anecdotes. University of Pittsburgh Press. 2015. Ethical Considerations: Basic Issues in Moral Philosophy. Mellen Press. 2015. Cognitive Complications: Epistemology in Pragmatic Perspective. Lexington Books. 2016. Pragmatism in Philosophical Inquiry. Springer. 2016. Concept Audits: A Philosophical Method. Lexington Books. 2018. Leibniz Essays. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2018. Philosophical Encounters. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2018. Family Matters. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2018. Kant Essays. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2018. A Philosopher's Story: The Autobiography of an American Philosopher. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.