Nicholas Rescher is distinguished university professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of numerous philosophical works and holds eight honorary degrees from universities on three continents. He has served as a president of the American Philosophical Association, the American Metaphilosophical Society, and the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984, the Belgium Prix Mercier in 2005, the Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in 2007, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011.