Philosophical Encounters

This book presents a retrospect of the author`s contacts and interactions with a wide array of philosophical contemporaries. The people of one's life come in a series of circles. One's identity comes to be shaped through interactive membership in all of them. Beginning at Princeton in 1950, Nicholas Rescher is still engaged in teaching philosophy continuing an active career extending to 68 years. During this time he has published well over 100 books and served as president of five major American philosophical societies. In the course of his unusually long career he has been in productive contact with scores of philosophers, scholars, and scientists, and the present book surveys his interactions with many of those who have left their mark on this work and thought. A book which, like this, deals with encounters between its author and others is bound to have a dual aspect. As far as its author goes, it is substantially autobiographic. But, as far as its subjects are concerned, in dealing with their impact upon others, it affords some raw material for the biographer who seeks to depict their subject's role in the larger scheme of things.