This volume collects together eleven essays in epistemology, written
during the past three years. They are mostly unpublished, just four of
them having appeared previously (numbers two, three, four and eleven).
Detailed acknowledgement of prior publication is made in the notes to
the relevant chapters. I am indebted to the editors of the several
publications involved for their kind permission to use this material.
And I am particularly grateful to my friend, Professor Mario Bunge, for
his interest in my work and for his willingness to include this sample
of it in his 'Episteme' series. NICHOLAS RESCHER Pittsburgh, PA
December, 1986 xi INTRODUCTION The philosophy of knowledge covers a vast
and enormously diversified terrain. Within this broad area, the essays
that comprise the present book deal specifically with the following
issues: 1. The moral dimension of inquiry - in particular, scientific
inquiry into the ways of the world (Chapter 1) 2. The epistemic status
of such cognitive 'values' of inquiry as - coherence (Chapter 2) -
consistency (Chapter 3) - completeness (Chapter 4) 3. The cognitive
bearing of probabilistic considerations (Chapters 5 and 6) 4. The
epistemic status of certain ideal desiderata of cognition, such as -
totality (Chapter 7) - precision (Chapter 8) - exactness (Chapter 9) 5.