A System of Pragmatic Idealism, Volume I: Human Knowledge in Idealistic Perspective (A System of Pragmatic Idealism, Vol. 1)

With Human Knowledge in Idealistic Perspective the philosopher Nicholas Rescher launches a three-volume series that will synthesize his life's work. Rescher's numerous books and articles, which address almost every major philosophical topic, reflect a unified approach: the combination of pragmatism and idealism characteristic of his thinking throughout his career. Three related but independently readable books will now present Rescher's system as a whole, showing that rather than simply juxtaposing European continental idealism and American pragmatism in a new way, he has created an integrated philosophical position in which the central concepts of these two traditions become a coherent totality. The present initial volume is dedicated to issues of epistemology, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of nature. Its position conforms to the classical structure of idealism in assigning to mind-supplied materials an at least partially determinative role in relation to our standard characterization of the world. Its approach has a teleological character in recognizing the substantial part played by human purpose, but nevertheless represents a middle-of-the-road idealism that makes significant concessions to realism. The second volume of the work will deal with issues of value theory, ethics, and practical philosophy; the third, with the nature of philosophical inquiry itself.