Philosophical work comes in different sizes: there are systemic treatises monographic surveys
philosopher-expanding texts. But there is also room for smaller studies that focus on highly
particularized ideas and issues: studies that deal not with entire continents but with mere
reefs and estuaries. The present essays are of this limited nature. Their aim is less to give a
view of the overall lay of the land than to give a tranistic view of the diversity of the
landscape. The present book continues Rescher's longstanding practice of publishing groups of
philosophical essays that originated in occasional lecture and conference presentations.
Notwithstanding their topical diversity the essays exhibit a uniformity of method in a common
attempt to view historically significant philosophical issues in the light of modern
perspectives opened up thorough conceptual clarification.
