Nature and Understanding explores the prospect of looking from a scientific point of view at such central ideas of traditional metaphysics as the simplicity of nature, its comprehensibility, or its systematic integrity. Rescher seeks to describe - in a way accessible to philosophers and nonphilosophers alike - the metaphysical situation that characterizes the process of inquiry in natural science. His principal aim is to see what light can be shed on reality by examining the modus operandi of natural science itself, focusing as much on its findings as on its conceptual and methodological presuppositions. This is the culmination of many years of penetrating work in this area of philosophy by one of its most eminent exponents. It is the definitive presentation of some of Rescher's key ideas.

About the Author
Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of more than eighty works ranging over many areas of philosophy, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984.

Reviews
This is a short book, but it goes very deep. * The Heythrop Journal *
Nature and Understanding is a valuable book. The number and range of topics benefiting from Rescher's wisdom is enormous. The book is eminently readable (Rescher knows how to write a good sentence) ... I recommend this book without hesitation to anyone interested in philosophy of science, metaphysics, and epistemology * MIND *
Rescher's latest offering is devoted to some of the most interesting and important issues in philosophy of science. * MIND *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198250852
Author Nicholas Rescher
Format Hardback
Page Count 196
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 385g
Dimensions(mm) 224mm * 147mm * 15mm