A reprint of the popular 1969, Prentice-Hall edition, the principal innovation of this philosophical introduction to value theory is its focus upon values as they are dealt with in everyday life situations, and have sometimes been studied by sociologists and social psychologists, rather than upon value as has been standard in the philosophical tradition. The treatment of values is developed in the light of relevant work in the social sciences, particularly economics. The result is a book suitable as a textbook for upper-class and graduate courses in the theory of values and as supplementary material for both courses in normative ethics and foundations-oriented courses in economic theory.

Concept auditing is based on an innovative premise for philosophers: when they address an everyday life conception on the order of knowledge, truth, justice, fairness, beauty, or the like and purport to be dealing with what it involves, then they must honor the existing meanings of these terms. And insofar as the prevailing meaning is being contravened, they must explain how and justify why this is being done. They must, in sum, explain how their treatment of a topic relates to our established pre-systematic understanding of the issues involved and relate their deliberations to the prevailing conception of the matter they are proposing to discuss. The aim of a concept audit is to consider to what extent a given philosophical discussion honors this communicative obligation. Concept Audits sets out not only to explain and defend this procedure, but also to consider a host of applications and exemplifications of these ideas. Nicholas Rescher shows how this method of conceptual auditing can function to elucidate and evaluate philosophical theses and doctrine across a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from logic to ethics and metaphysics. Accordingly, he explains and illustrates an instructive innovation in philosophical method. This new study of philosophical methodology presents its method in a clear and convincing way and shows the method at work with respect to a wide spectrum of important philosophical issues.

The prime intent of this work is one of innovation. Nicholas Rescher addresses issues that are under-examined in the present state of discussion, their inherent interest notwithstanding. The linking thread of these investigations is their pragmatic dimension, inherent in the idea that rational inquiry is itself a practice - albeit one that functions in the ideationally cognitive rather than physically manipulative realm. As a practice, it has its aims and functions that in their turn provide for the standards of adequacy and efficacy that establish the criteriological norms of our cognitive proceedings. Written for students and scholars of philosophy and of information theory