Nicholas Rescher Quotes

Germany, Philosopher
July 15, 1928

Nicholas Rescher (/ˈrɛʃər/; German: [ˈʁɛʃɐ]) is a German-American philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the Chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science and has formerly served as Chairman of the Philosophy Department.

Leibniz ... envisioned real possibility in terms rooted in axiological considerations of evaluative optimality. To be sure, it is clear that one cannot just optimize. ... One has to optimize something, some feature or aspect of things. And if this factor is to be something that is qualified, be accepted as self-validating and self-sustaining, then the clearly most promising candidate would seem to be intelligence itself. ...

Nicholas Rescher
Scientific realism is the doctrine that science describes the real world: that the world actually is as science takes it to be, and that its furnishings are as science envisages them to be It is quite clear that it is not…

Nicholas Rescher

One cannot properly appreciate the human realities so long as one labors under the adolescent delusion that people get the fates they deserve.

Nicholas Rescher
- Deserve
- Realities
- Fates
I have never thought for a moment that if you cannot say it with numbers that it just is not worth saying. But all the same, I do firmly believe that where you cannot put numbers to work you will understand the matter better and more clearly for being able to explain why.

Nicholas Rescher
- Saying
- Numbers
- Explain