"Leibniz ... envisioned real possibility in terms rooted in axiological considerations of evaluative optimality. To be sure, it is clear that one cannot just optimize. ... One has to optimize something, some feature or aspect of things. And if this factor is to be something that is qualified, be accepted as self-validating and self-sustaining, then the clearly most promising candidate would seem to be intelligence itself. ... The value at issue here with "being for the best" is a matter of being so as intelligent creatures see it—that is from the vantage point of intelligence itself. Assuredly, no intelligent being would prefer an alternative that is inferior in this regard. And so, for an intelligent being—a rational creature—intelligence itself must figure high on the scale of values."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesAcademics from GermanyPhilosophers from GermanyEducators from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Issues of Ultimate Explanation," in On Certainty and Other Philosophical Essays on Cognition (2011), Section 7, "Noophelia is the Crux," pp. 79-80
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Rescher
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Nicholas Rescher
Nicholas Rescher (15 July 1928 – 5 January 2024) was a German-American philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh.
3 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Nicholas Rescher →
Related Quotes
"I have never thought for a moment that if you cannot say it with numbers that it just is not worth saying. But all th…"
"Rescher's work envisions a dialectical tension between our synoptic aspirations for useful knowledge and our human li…"
"For him delicious flavors dwell In books as in old Muscatel."
"And in the evening, everywhere Along the roadside, up and down, I see the golden torches flare Like lighted street-la…"
"Song like a rose should be; Each rhyme a petal sweet; For fragrance, melody, That when her lips repeat The words, her…"
"The hunter catches a dreadful prey, the seaman steers his ship into an unspeakable harbor, the plowman sows and reaps…"
"You are the king no doubt, but in one respect, at least, I am your equal: the right to reply. I claim that privilege …"
"When Hector heard that challenge he rejoiced and right in the no man's land along his lines he strode, gripping his s…"
"In the ancient land of vintage and dance and sun-burnt mirth, there resounded during the Middle Ages a sweet chorus o…"
"The poetry of the troubadours was essentially social in character. Unlike Goethe's minstrel, who sang as the bird amo…"