Table of Contents

Preface 1. Philosophical Principles Philosophical Principles Principles of Informative Adequacy Probative Principles of Rational Cogency Principles of Rational Economy Issues of Validation Dealing with Objections 2. Aporetic Method in Philosophy Consistency and Apories Some Sample Apories On Appraising Apories Enter Distinctions Apory Resolution as Cost-Benefit Analysis 3. On Distinctions in Philosophy What Distinctions Are How Distinctions Fail Misassimilation Historical Background The Role of Distinctions in Philosophy Philosophical Apories Tie Issues Together 4. Respect Neglect and Misassimilation as Fallacies of Philosophical Distinctions Respect Neglect Simplicity Fallacy 5. Systemic Interconnectedness and Explanatory Holism in Philosophy The Problem Summative Features Fallacies of Composition and Division Is Existence Mereologically Summative? No--A Whole is More Than Its Parts The Analytical/Constructionist Program Instances of the Implementation of the Constructionist Program Problem Number One: The Fallacy of Termination Presumption Problem Number Two: The Disintegration of Simplicity and the Fallacy of Respect Neglect Perspectival Dissonance and Nonamalgamation Cognition Is Not Summative Review Externalities and Negative Side Effects Systematic Interconnectedness as a Consequence of Aporetic Complexity 6. The Structure of Philosophical Dialectic Philosophical Aporetics The Role of Distinctions The Structure of Dialectic Developmental Dialectics The Burden of History The Structure of Philosophical History 7. Ignorance and Cognitive Horizons Ignorance Intractable Questions about the Cognitive Future and Surd Generalities Insolubilia Then and Now Cognitive Limits Identifying Insolubilia Relating Knowledge to Ignorance Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of more than one hundred books, including Epistemology: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge; Realistic Pragmatism: An Introduction to Pragmatic Philosophy; Predicting the Future: An Introduction to the Theory of Forecasting; Process Metaphysics: An Introduction to Process Philosophy; and Dialectics: 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.

Reviews

"Disgruntlement with the endemic disagreements among philosophers down through the centuries has led to intermittent hope that some gifted metaphilosopher might create a 'perennial' philosophy. Nicholas Rescher has a more modest, but still worthwhile, goal in mind--to trace the development of certain perennial issues in the history of philosophy and examine the principles and methods that have led to progress on these issues. Short of final solutions, he shows that many refinements have been successful and the insolubilia of old have become less vexing."