Philosophical Reasoning

Preface.

Introduction.

Part I: The Task of Philosophy:.

Part II: Philosophizing as an Erotetic Enterprise: The Dialectic
of Question and Answer:.

Part III: What's on the Agenda?:.

Part IV: Philosophical Discourse:.

Part V: Interpreting Philosophical Texts:.

Part VI: Rhetoric And Rational Argumentation:.

Part VII: Philosophical Aporetics:.

Part VIII: The Economic Dimension of Philosophical Inquiry:.

Part IX: The Impact of Distinctions:.

Part X: Inference to the Best Explanation and its Problems:.

Part XI: The Coherentist Criteriology of Truth as a
Philosophical Method:.

Part XII: Why Philosophizing Must Be Systematic: The Holistic
Nature of Philosophy:.

Part XIII: Systematization as an Instrument of Inquiry:.

Part XIV: Developmental Dialectics and Complexity:.

Part XV: Counterfactual Reasoning as a Philosophical
Instrument:.

Part XVI: Validating First Principles:.

Part XVII: God's Place in Philosophy (Non in Philosophia
Recurrere est ad Deum):.

Part XVIII: Philosophy at the Turn of the Century: A Return to
Systems?:

"Philosophical Reasoning is a probing and commanding study
of the methodology of philosophical inquiry. It is an excellent
book on the difficult subject of how one should philosophize and
what we can reasonably expect of philosophy, and a breath of fresh
air falling between the extremes of philosophy as natural science
and philosophy as the purely a priori. A very intriguing,
articulate and convincing story of the nature of an art Rescher has
practiced so well for so long for the benefit of so many. I
strongly recommend it." Robert Almeder, Georgia State
University

"Philosophy aims at rationally constructed comprehensiveness,
now more collectively/dialectically and less
individually/reflectively than in the past. So argues Nicolas
Rescher in this systematic defense of system. If philosophical
about their practice, philosophers who pick up this book won't
easily put it down, even if in the end they disagree." Ernest
Sosa, Brown University

"What makes the book such a pleasure to read is that it combines
the precision and thoroughness of a master philosopher with a
writing style that makes for easy reading. This is a book which
both novices and experts should read to help both understand the
nature of their enterprise better." Philosophy in Review

Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at
the University of Pittsburgh where he served for many years as
Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science. A Former
president of the American Philosophical Association, he is an
honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is the author
of more than eighty works ranging over many areas of philosophy and
was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic
Scholarship in 1984.

N. Rescher, University of Pittsburgh