Wishful Thinking and Other Philosophical Reflections

During 2007-2008 Nicholas Rescher continued his longstanding practice of writing occasional studies on philosophical topics, both for formal presentation and for informal discussion with colleagues. While his forays of this kind have usually been issued in journal publications, this has not been so in the present case so that the studies offered here encompass substantially new material. Notwithstanding their thematic variation, these exemplify a problem-oriented method in the treatment of philosophical issues that is characteristic of Reschers philosophical modus operandi and inherent in its endeavors to treat classical issues from novel points of view. For Rescher usually more concerned with what "should" be said about a philosophical question than with what X, Y, and Z "have" said about it, and he inclined to address issues of the latter sort primarily as a means for addressing the former.