Rate My Professor Nicholas Rescher

Nicholas Rescher was Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, where he served from 1961 until his death in 2024. Born in Hagen, Germany, in 1928, he immigrated to the United States at age 10 and became a naturalized citizen in 1944. He earned a B.A. in mathematics from Queens College, New York, in 1949, followed by a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1951 at the record-setting age of 22. His dissertation examined Leibniz's cosmology. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War (1952-1954) and working at the RAND Corporation (1954-1957), he taught briefly at Lehigh University before joining Pittsburgh. There, he chaired the Department of Philosophy, directed and chaired the Center for Philosophy of Science, and founded the American Philosophical Quarterly in 1964. Rescher held presidencies of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, Leibniz Society of North America, Charles S. Peirce Society, American Catholic Philosophical Association, and Metaphysical Society of America. He also served as secretary general of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.