Nicholas Rescher's book Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism is a detailed exposition of axiogenerts: the philosophical theory seeking to explain the world's facts on the basis of evaluative considerations. In classical antiquity, this theory was espoused by Plato (in the Timaeus) and neo-Platonic tradition; in early modern times, it was revived by Leibniz and continued to find favor in the development of rational mechanics from Maupertuis to William Hamilton. However, since then the principles behind axiogenesis and similar theories have fallen out of fashion. This book is therefore unique in that it argues in detail that this metaphysical approach still has traction and endeavors to formulate the theory in a manner that makes it available as a live option for contemporary thinkers. Advanced students of philosophy and professionals in this field, as well as anyone interested in the issue of speculative metaphysics, will find Rescher's contemporary refashioning of axiogenesis a distinctly compelling read.

Nicholas Rescher is distinguished university professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. In a research career extending over six decades, he has published over three hundred articles and written over a hundred philosophy texts, including A System of Pragmatic Idealism, The Limits of Science, Conditionals, Philosophical Reasoning: A Study in the Methodology of Philosphizing, Enlightening Journey: The Autobiography of an American Scholar, and Unknowability: An Inquiry Into the Limits of Knowledge.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Ultimate Questions
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Ultimate Answers
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. Optimalism and its Turn to Axiology
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Intelligence and Rationality as Pivots for Optimality: the Idea of Noophelia
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Abandoning Efficient Causality for Axiotropism
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. Meeting Objections to Optimalism
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. On the Improvability of the World
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Axiogenesis and Intelligent Design
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Intelligence in an Evolutionary Perspective
Chapter 11 Chapter 10. Is Noophelic Axiogenesis Unscientific?
Chapter 12 Chapter 11. Leibnizian Physics as a Case Study
Chapter 13 Chapter 12. Gödel: Noophelia in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 14 Chapter 13. Axiogenesis and Theology