Enlightening Journey: The Autobiography of an American Scholar

This volume brings the life of the American philosopher, Nicholas Rescher, into the new millennium. The last in a quartet of autobiographical works, this instalment charts - in a single volume - the many twists and turns of Rescher’s life and career. It takes the reader through Rescher’s childhood in Weimar and then Nazi Germany; life as a first-generation American during the Depression; as a high-school student during World War II and a graduate student at Princeton; as a serviceman during the Korean War; and work as a Cold War warrior with the RAND Corporation during the Vietnam War. The autobiography traces the evolution of Rescher’s career as a professional philosopher and his contribution of over 70 books and more than 200 articles, many written in the construction of his signature system of pragmatic idealism.