Philosophical Dialectics: An Essay on Metaphilosophy

by Nicholas Rescher

A study in philosophical methodology aimed at providing a clear view of the scope and limits of philosophical inquiry.While the pursuit of philosophy “of” studies—of science, of art, of politics—has blossomed, the philosophy of philosophy remains a comparatively neglected domain. In this book, Nicholas Rescher fills this gap by offering a study in methodology aimed at providing a clear view of the scope and limits of philosophical inquiry. He argues that philosophy’s inability to resolve all of the problems of the field does not preclude the prospect of achieving a satisfactory resolution of many or even most of them.Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of more than one hundred books, including An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge; Realistic An Introduction to Pragmatic Philosophy; Predicting the An Introduction to the Theory of Forecasting; Process An Introduction to Process Philosophy; and A Controversy-Oriented Approach to the Theory of Knowledge; all published by SUNY Press. Among his many achievements, he is former president of the American Philosophical Association and recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship.

Genres: Philosophy

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nick Wellings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought provoking but lapses into historiography/straight history at times (fair few examples whereby suggested meta philosophical principles have obtained/been deployed.) Concept of aporeitc reasoning useful to bear in mind (for Rescher a desiderata of future philosophy.) Section on Distinctions useful.
Minus points: horrific solecisms abound. Typos galore. Wrongly spelled names, missing punctuation. Some sentences meaningless as consequence. Further, lazy wholesale cut and pasting leads to awful deja vu feeling (and tutting), the feeling that one has somehow turned the page only to go 60 pages back. A breezy read overall, with some interesting points to take away or build upon, but by golly it needed an editor's attention!