Factual Appendix to
ACADEMIC
VITA
Nicholas
Rescher
Distinguished
University Professor of Philosophy
1. BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
Born in Hagen, Germany, 1928. Removed to the U.S., 1938;
U.S. citizenship granted, 1944. Served as n.c.o. (corporal) in the U.S.
Marine Corps, 1952-1954. Married in 1968 (to Dorothy Henle);
children—Mark, Owen, Catherine; and Elizabeth by a prior marriage.
2. STUDIES
Undergraduate study at Queens College
(Flushing, New York), 1946-1949. B.S. (mathematics), 1949, magna cum laude, with honors in
mathematics.
Graduate Study at Princeton University,
1949-1951. M.A.
(philosophy), 1950; Ph.D., 1951.
University Fellow, 1949-1951.
Dissertation: “Leibniz’s Cosmology: A Study of the Relations Between
Leibniz’s Work in Physics and his Philosophy.”
(Ph.D. completed in two years, still at age 22,
setting a record in the Princeton department.)
3. POSITIONS
Assistant in Instruction (Philosophy), 1950-1951.
Instructor in Philosophy, 1951-1952.
The RAND Corporation (
Assistant Mathematician, 1954-1955.
Associate Mathematician, 1955-1956.
Research Mathematician, 1956-1957.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 1957-1959.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, 1959-1961.
Professor of Philosophy, 1961-1968.
Research Professor of Philosophy, 1968-1970.
Distinguished University Professor of
Philosophy, 1970-present.
4. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE AT THE
Chairman, Department of Philosophy, 1980-1981.
Director, Center for Philosophy of Science, 1981-1988.
Chairman, Center for Philosophy of Science,
1988-present.
5. VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS
Honorary member of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford (elected in 1977).
Visiting Professor: Temple University, 1968-1969; University of
Western Ontario, 1970-1974; Catholic University of America, 1971-1972;
University of Rochester, Spring 1979.
Visiting Lecturer,
6. PUBLICATIONS
Author of over two hundred scholarly articles
and of some hundred books, many of which have been translated into other
languages. For details, see the
separate “List of Publications.”
7. BOOKS
ABOUT NR’S WORK
Ernest Sosa (ed.), The
Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher (Dordrecht:
Reidel, 1979). [A
collection of critical essays with brief replies by N.R. [The contributors include: Annette Baier, Stephen Barker, Nuel D. Belnap, Jr., Laurence BonJour, Robert E. Butts, Roderick M. Chisholm, L. Jonathan
Cohen, Jude J. Dougherty, Brian Ellis, R.M. Hare,
Hide Ishiguro, George Von Wright, and John W. Yolton.]
Robert Almeder (ed.), Praxis and Reason: Studies in the Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher
(Washington, D.C.: University Press of
America, 1982.) [A
collection of critical and expanding essays with brief replies by NR. The contributors include: Timo Airaksinen, Robert Almeder, Antonio Cua,
John E. Hare, Risto Hilpinen,
John Kekes, Gerald J. Massey, Jack W. Meiland, Mark Pastin, Friedrick Rapp, James Sterba, and
Dennis Temple.]
Heiner Coomann, Die
kohaerenztheorie der Wahrheit: Eine
kritische Darstellung der Theorie Reschers von Ihrem historischen Hintergrund
(Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang,
1983).
Andrea
Bottani, Verità e
Coerenza: Suggio su’ll epistemologia
coerentista di Nicholas Rescher, (Milano: Franco Angeli Liberi, 1989). [A systematic study of NR’s coherence
theory of truth.]
Michele Marsonet, The Primacy of
Practical Reason: An Essay on Nicholas
Rescher’s Philosophy (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 1995).
A. Wüstehube and M. Quante (eds.), Pragmatic Idealism: Critical Discussions of Nicholas Rescher’s
Philosophy System (Amsterdam: Ropodi, 1998). [A series of some fifteen critical essays on NR’s
philosophy.]
Lotfallah Nabori,
Avicennan Logic Based on Nicholas Rescher’s
Point of View (
Michael Weber (ed.), After
Whitehead: Rescher and Process
Philosophy (
Nicholas Moutafakis, Rescher on Rationality, Values, and Social
Responsibility (Frankfurt, ONTOS Verlag, 2007).
8. MEMBERSHIP IN ACADEMIES
Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland. Elected to fellowship in 1961.
Institut
International de Philosophie. Elected to membership in
1971. [Based in
Pennsylvania Academy of
Science. Elected
to membership in 1976.
Academie Internationale de Philosphie
des Sciences. Elected
to membership in 1984. [Based in
Academia Europaea:
European Academy of Arts and Sciences. Elected to membership
in 1997.
Royal Society of Canada. Elected as Foreign Fellow
in 2006.
American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. Elected to fellowship in 2009.
9. HONORARY DEGREES
L.H.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters),
Loyola
Dr. h.c.
(Doctor honoris causa),
National Autonomous University of Córdoba (
L.H.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters), Lehigh University, 1993.
Dr. h.c.
(Doctor honoris causa),
D.Sc. (Doctor of Science, honoris causa). Queens College of the City University of New York, 1999.
Dr. phil. h.c.
(Doctor philosophiae honoris
causa), Fernuniversität
Hagen (
Dr. rer.
Pol. h.c. (Doctor rerum politicarum honors causa),
L.H.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters), Cleveland State University, 2007.
10. AWARDS AND PRIZES
Alexander von Humboldt Humanities Prize,
1983. (Some three or four of
these prizes, designed as Forschungspreis für Geisteswissenschaftler,
are awarded worldwide each year under the auspices of the Federal Republic of
Germany “in recognition of outstanding research accomplishments by humanistic
scholars of international distinction.”)
Medal of Merit for Distinguished Scholarship,
University of Helsinki (Finland), 1990.
(Two or three of these medals are awarded annually by this university to
recognize outstanding contributions in different academic fields.) The award cited NR for “his innovative
reexaminations of classical issues in philosophy from contemporary
perspectives.”
Cardinal Mercier Prize (Prix Mercier) awarded to Scholastic
Meditations in 2005. (This prize is awarded worldwide biannually by the
University catholique de
Chancellors Distinguished Research Award,
University of Pittsburgh, 1990. (An award given periodically to a senior scholar on the university
faculty who has a particularly distinguished record in research.)
Thomas Aquinas Medal,
American Catholic Philosophical Association, 2007. (One of these medals
is awarded annually worldwide as a lifetime achievement and to a distinguished
Catholic philosopher.)
Order of Merit Premier Class Bundesdienstkreuz
Erster Klasse) of the
Federal Republic of Germany 2011.
11. SPECIAL LECTURESHIPS
United States Air Force Academy: J.A. Reich
Distinguished Lecture on War, Morality and the Military Profession. “The Complexity of Military Obligation.” November, 1990.
Ohio University.
Southern Illinois University. Fritz Marti Lecturer. March 2003.
Marquette University. Thomas Aquinas Lecturer.
“Common Sense.” February 2005.
Fordham University. Franisco Sqarez Lecturer. “Distinctions in
Philosophy.” April 2005.
12. MEMBERSHIP IN LEARNED AND HONORARY SOCIETIES
Member of American Philosophical Association, American Catholic
Philosophical Association, Philosophy of Science Society, International G.W. Leibniz Society, Charles S. Peirce Society, and
others.
Member of Phi Betta
Kappa and Sigma Xi. Honoris
causa member of the Omicron Delta Kappa Society
(student honorary) and of Phi Sigma Tau (student philosophy honorary).
13. PRESIDENCIES OF SCHOLARLY ORGANIZATIONS
• Charles Sanders Peirce Society (1983-86).
• G. W. Leibniz Society of
• American Philosophical Association,
• American Catholic Philosophical Association
(2003-04).
• American
14. SERVICE ON GOVERNING BOARDS OF SCHOLARLY
ORGANIZATIONS
Secretary General, Division of Logic, Methodology
and Philosophy of Science of the international Union of History and Philosophy
of Science (an organ of UNESCO), 1969-1975.
Board of Directors, International Federation
of Philosophical Societies, 1984-present. (Chairman, Commission on
Finances 1972-77.)
President, University of Pittsburgh Chapter
(Xi of Pennsylvania) of Phi Beta Kappa, 1979-1980. (Member of Steering
Committee 1980-present.)
Member of the Board of Directors, JHP
Institute (Publisher of the Journal of the History of Philosophy), 1963
- 1975. (Founding
member.)
Member of the Governing Board of JPL
Associates (Governing body of the Journal of Philosophical Logic), 1963
- present; president 1971-1980.
Member of the Board of Directors,
Member of the International Board of Advisors, Center for
Advanced Research in Phenomenology, 1989 - 1995.
15. OFFICES IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
Member of the Council (Wissenschaftlicher
Beirat) of the International Leibniz Society (Internationale G.W. Leibniz-Gesellschaft), 1967 - present.
Executive Committee Member, The
Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science (1970-1980).
Chairman, Program Committee for 1970,
American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division).
Executive Committee Member, Leibniz Society of
Chairman, Nominating Committee for 1984-85,
Philosophy of Science Society.
Member, Matchette
Prize Selection Committee for 1987, American Philosophical Association.
President, Phi Beta Kappa Chapter Xi of
Pennsylvania, 1998 (Member of the Executive Committee 1982-present).
Member of the Board of Directors, International Federation of
Philosophical Societies, (1988-1995).
16. MEMBERSHIP OF SCHOLARLY COMMITTEES AND
COMMISSIONS
Member of the
Member, Commission for the Year 2000 of the American
Member of the Committee on International Cooperation of the
American Philosophical Association (1972-1977).
Member of the Organizing Committee for the Bicentennial
Symposium of Philosophy, 1974-76. (Arranged under the aegis of the American Philosophical
Association.)
Member of the Peirce Sesquicennial
Congress Organizing Committee, to plan for international congress in 1989. (Arranged under the aegis
of the C.S. Peirce Society and the American
Philosophical Association.)
Member of the Catholic Commission on
Intellectual and Cultural Affairs.
(Elected in 1986).
17. GRANTS IN SUPPORT OF RESEARCH/POSTDOCTORAL
FELLOWSHIPS
Over the years research support has been received from the Ford
Foundation (Fellow, 1959-60), the National Science Foundation, (several
grants), The J. S. Guggenheim Foundation (Fellow 1970-71), the American
Philosophical Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies.
18. UNIVERSITY SERVICE:
Director, Center for Philosophy of Science, 1981-1988. (Co- Chairman,
1988-present. Earlier service as Associate Director
1961-1972).
Chairman, Department of Philosophy, 1962
[acting]; 1980-81.
Executive Committee, Department of
Philosophy, 1961-present. Executive Committee, Department of History and Philosophy of
Science, 1971-present.
Task Force for inaugurating a doctoral program in Religious
Studies, 1966-67; internal Evaluation Committee for the Department of Classics,
1979; University Senate committee for University press, 1974-77 and 1980-1988
(Chairman, 1981-84); Steering Committee for the University’s Distinguished
Lecture Series, 1979-12; Search Committee for Mellon Professor of Economics,
1981; Provost Search Committee, 1970, 1983, 1993. Member, Executive Committee
of the University’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, 1980-1995. Chairman, Provost Review
Committee, 1990. Member, Selection Committee for President’s Distinguished Research
Award, 1995-96. Distinguished Professorship Nomination Review Committee, 1997-99. Provost’s Committee on Academic Freedom,
2002-03.
19. DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS DIRECTED
Stephen Puryear 2006
Alexander Pruss 2001
Johanna Seibt 1990
David Carey 1989
Joshua Golding 1989
M. Bryson Brown 1986
Robyn (Mintz)
Heym 1981
Diego Marconi 1980
Gerald Michalec 1978
Kathleen Owens 1977
Mary Grace Richardson 1977
Zakaria Bashier 1973
Kenneth Collier 1972
Richard Schuldenfrei 1972
Carl Putz 1971
David Mayo 1970
Thomas Schwartz 1970
Richard Hertz 1967
Brian Skyrms 1964
Ernest Sosa 1964
Stuart Silvers, 1962
20. SUPPORT FOR CONGRESSIONAL PANELS
• Support for the Congressionally
mandated Natural Science Foundation report on Science Indicators 1976
published in 1977 by the NSF for the National Science Board as document
NSB-77-1. Also
consulted on the NSF’s “Five Year Outlook” in 1979 as a member of Advisory
Committee for the Program in Science and Technology.
• Testimony before the Congressional Science
Committee’s Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight (Chaired by Representative
Donald Fuqua of
• Contribution to the Civilian Space
Stations and the U. S. Future in Space (Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Office of Technology Assessment; document OTA-STI-24: November 1984).
21. SERVICES TO PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND
INSTITUTIONS
Member, External Program Evaluation Committee: Lehigh University, 1974,1975; Loyola
University of Chicago, 1978; Catholic University of America, 1979; Syracuse
University, 1980; Guelph & McMaster Universities, 1989; SUNY,
Albany, 1990; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1998.
Member of the University Press Committee of
the University of Pittsburgh Press (1968-1977 and 1980-84; Chairman 1981-84).
Member of the Board of Editorial Advisors, C.S.
Peirce Edition (1975-1980).
Member of the Board of Editors, “Studies in
Islamic Philosophy and Science” (Publications series of the Society for the
Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science) 1978-1982.
Member of the Board of Editors, “History of
Logic Library” (1981 - ).
Member of the Board of Editors, “Epistêmê Library” (1987- ).
Member, International Board of Advisors,
Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology (1990- 1995).
Nominating Committee, McArthur Foundation,
1993-94.
Member, Council (Beirat)
of the Institut für
Wissenschaft und Ethik (1995- ).
Nominating Editor, The Philosopher’s Annual (1997- ).
Member of the Advisory Board, Center for Culture
and Civil Society (2006- ).
Memberof the Advisory Board, C. S. Lewis Society of California (2006- ).
22. CONSULTANCIES
RAND Corporation (
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968-73.
Program in Science and Technology, National Science Foundation
(1979-80).
North America Philosophical Publications, 1980-present
23. EDITORSHIP OF LEARNED JOURNALS
Editor, American Philosophical Quarterly, 1964-94.
Editor, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 1983-92.
Editor, Public Affairs Quarterly, 1986-91.
24. OTHER EDITORIAL SERVICE
General Co-Editor, Pittsburgh Series in
Philosophy and History of Science (University of California Press),
1980-present.
General Co-Editor, C.P.S.
Publications in Philosophy of Science (University Press of America),
1982-present.
Member of the Management Committee, Studia Leibnitiana.
Member of the
Management Committee, Deutsche
Zeitschrift für Philosophie.
Member
of the Board of Advisors, Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik; Revista Colombiana de Filosofîa de la Sciencia; Science and Technology Stories; The
Independent Review: A Journal of
Political Economy.
Editorial Board Member: Asian Philosophy; Dialogue
and Humanism (Poland); Epistemologia; History
of Philosophy and Logical Analysis; Idealistic Studies; Informal
Logic; Leibniz Society Review;
Metaphilosophy; Mind and Society; Nature and System;
Philosophical Alternatives (Bulgaria); Philosophisches Yahrbuch; Philosophy and Computing; Philosophy
in Context; Reason in Practice:
Journal of the Philosophy of Management; Research in Philosophy
and Technology; Social Philosophy and Policy; Studia
Culturologica (Bulgaria); The Journal of
Philosophical Logic; Theoria et Historia Scientiarum
(Poland); The Pluralist.
25. COMMUNITY SERVICE
Trustee, St. Edmund’s Academy, Pittsburgh, PA (an independent
school, under Episcopalian auspices, running from the nursery school level
through the eighth grade), 1980-1985; Vice President of the Board of Trustees,
1983-1985.
26. LISTINGS IN ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND REFERENCE WORKS
Diccionario de filosofía, ed. J. Ferrater-Mora
(6th ed., [
Dizionario dei Filosofi del
Novecento, Roma, Leo S. Olschkin
Editore, 1985), p. 625.
Pragmatik: Handbuch des pragmatischen Denkens (Hamburg:
F. Meiner), Vol. II (1987), pp. 272-4 and 405-7; Vol. III (1989), pp.
473-76; Vol. V (1995), pp. 179-194.
Philosophie
der Gegenwart, ed. by J. Nida-Rümelin (Stuttgart: Alfred Kroner Verlag, 1991), pp. 495-99.
A
Companion to Epistemology ed. by S. Sosa and J. Dancy,
(Oxford: Blackwells 1992), pp. 448-49.
The
Enzyklopädie
Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie, ed. by J. Mittelstrass, Vol. 3 (Stuttgart: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), pp. 594-97.
A
Dictionary of Philosophy ed. by Thos. Mautner
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 366.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ed. by Edward Craig
(London: Routledge, 1996), pp.
660-61. Article by E.
Sosa.
Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth Century Philosophers,
ed. by S. Brown et. al. (London and
New York: Routledge, 1996).
A Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion,
ed. by William L. Reese, 2nd ed. (Atlantic Highland, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996).
Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy, ed.
by T. Mautner (London: Penguin Books, 1997).
Brockhaus: Die Enzyklopädie, Vol. 18 [F.A. Brockhaus: Leipzig-Meisenheim, 1998), p. 290.
World Philosophers and Their Works John. K. Roth
(ed.) (
Lexicon of Philosophers. www.philosophenlexicon.de
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (
Wikipedia
27. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES
The International Who’s Who, Dictionary of
International Biography; International
Authors and Writers Who’s Who, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who
in America, Who’s Who in the 21st Century, Contemporary Authors,
Directory of American Scholars, American Men and Women of Science,
Who’s Who in American Education, and others.
28. From THE PHILOSOPHER’S DICTIONARY by Daniel
Dennett
resch, (1)
v. To evince an extravagant or pathological degree of
intellectual energy in many directions.
“He is always resching into print—one can’t
keep up with his stuff.” (2) rescher, n. A unit for measuring
the venue of printed pages, equal to the collected writing of Francis Bacon
(e.g.; a rescher of Bacon). 1 rescher = 10,000 sheffers. “The new
wing will increase the library by over a thousand rescher.”
29. IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS ASSOCIATED EPONYMOUSLY
WITH NR’S
• The Rescher Quantifier in symbolic logic. See
• Rescher's Law of Logarithmic Returns [also Rescher’s
Principle of Decreasing Marginal Returns] in scientometrics. See James R. Wible, The Economics of Science (London & New
York: Routledge, 1998), p. 151 and the
Index) and Roland Wagner-Döbler, “Rescher’s Principle
of Diminishing Marginal Returns in Scientific Research,” Scientometrics,
vol. 50 (2001), pp. 419-36. Idem,
“Wissenschafteliche Information,” Wissenschaftliches
Jahrbuch 2000 (Norderstet, Gestellschaft für Wissenschaftsfurlong, 2001),
pp. 105-120. See also the Wikipedia entry on “Rescher’s Law of
Diminishing Returns.”
• Rescher’s Effective Average Measure in the theory of
distributive justice. Se
L. H. Powers, “A More Effective Average,” Philosophical Studies, vol. 24
(1970), pp. 74-78); and Geoffrey Ross, “Utilities for distributive Justine,” Theory
and Decision, vol. 4 (1974), pp. 239-58 (especially pp. 250-57).
• The Dienes-Rescher Inference
Engine (also Rescher-Dienes Implication)
in nonstandard logic. See Olaf Wolkenhauser, Fuzzy Inference Engines (
• The Rescher-Gaines Implication in many-valued logic. See
B. Reusch and K. Temme (eds), Computational
Intelligence in Theory and Practice (2001).
• The Rescher-Manor Consequence Relation in nonmonotonic logic.
See Diderik Batens,
“A Survey of Inconsistency-Adaptive Logics and the Foundtion
of Non-Monotonic Logics,” Logique et Analyse, vol. 37 (1994),
pp. 57-94; see also J. Merhuis (ed.), Inconsistency
in Science (
• The Rescher-Brandom Semantics for paraconsistent
logic. See Edward V. Zalta, Notre Dame Journal of
Formal Logic, vol. 36 (1997), pp. 640-60.
• Rescher’s Model [or Theory] of Formal Disputation in
dialectics. See Gerhard Brewka, “Dynamic Argument Systems,” Journal of Logic and
Computation, vol. 11 (2001), pp. 257-82.
• The Rescher Operator in temporal logic. See Lennart Aqvist, “Combinations of Tense and Deontic Modality: On the
Rt approach to Temporal Logic with
Historical Necessity and Conditional Obligation,” Journal of Applied Logic,
vol. 3 (2005), pp. 421-60.
((For detailed information about these items see the references accessible via Google .))