Studies in Metaphysical Optimalism (Nicholas Rescher Collected Papers) - Hardcover

This book unfolds a line of thought that runs as follows: A universe in which intelligent beings can evolve and thrive through processes of natural selection must, in substantial measure, be so constituted as though an intelligent agent or agency had designed it. If a world is to allow intelligent beings to emerge by natural processes, then its mode of operation must itself exhibit the definitive characteristics of an as-if-designed manifold of natural process.

Because intelligence itself will figure at or near the top of the value-scale of an intelligent being, it is evident that any universe created by an intelligent agent or agency is bound to prioritize the needs and interests of intelligent agents. Its arrangements will accordingly conduce towards an intelligence-geared optimalism that envisions a nature whose operations foster the realization of optimal conditions for the functioning of intelligence. The world's intelligibility should accordingly occasion no surprise once one recognizes that intelligent beings exist within it.