The Rorty Reader

The Rorty Reader represents the first comprehensive collection of the writings of Richard Rorty, one of the twentieth century’s most influential thinkers, best known for the controversial Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979). Gathering together key essays from over four decades of writings, the volume offers an in–depth introduction to the philosopher′s life and prolific body of work. Topics addressed include the continuities and transformations that span Rorty′s early training in the history of philosophy, his engagement with the analytic tradition, and the 1979 publication that brought him international renown. Particular attention is devoted to his later political writings, including his turn to literature as the vehicle of moral reflection most suitable to democratic life, and his embrace of philosophy as cultural politics. With selections from The Linguistic Turn (1967) , Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979) , Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989) , Achieving Our Country (1998) , and his four volumes of philosophical papers, including Philosophy as Cultural Politics (2007), as well as in–depth interviews and revealing autobiographical pieces, The Rorty Reader offers a compelling and representative view of Rorty’s relationship with American pragmatism and the overall intellectual trajectory of his philosophical and political thought.

Preface. Acknowledgments. Source Acknowledgments. Abbreviations. General Introduction. Part I: Toward Philosophy without Mirrors: 1. Introduction, The Linguistic Turn . 2. Dewey’s Metaphysics. 3. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature: Introduction and Chapter VIII. 4. Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism. 5. Nineteenth–Century Idealism and Twentieth–Century Textualism. Part II: Conversations with Analytic Philosophy:   6. From Logic to Language to Play.   7. Pragmatism, Davidson, and Truth.   8. Twenty–Five Years After.   9. Putnam and the Relativist Menace. 10. Analytic and Conversational Philosophy. Part III: From Antirepresentationalism to Political Liberalism: 11. Philosophy as Science, as Metaphor, and as Politics. 12. Solidarity or Objectivity? 13. The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy. 14. Freud and Moral Reflection. 15. Private Irony and Liberal Hope. Part IV: Pragmatism, Literature, and Democracy: 16. The Humanistic Intellectual: Eleven Theses. 17. Heidegger, Kundera, and Dickens. 18. De Man and the American Cultural Left. 19. Feminism and Pragmatism. 20. Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality. 21. Looking Backwards from the Year 2096. 22. American National Pride: Whitman and Dewey. 23. Redemption from Egotism: James and Proust as Spiritual Exercises. Part V: Philosophy as Cultural Politics: 24. Truth without Correspondence to Reality. 25. Ethics without Principles. 26. Justice as a Larger Loyalty. 27. Pragmatism as Romantic Polytheism. 28. Religion in the Public Square: A Reconsideration. 29. Is “Cultural Recognition” a Useful Concept for Leftist Politics? 30. Philosophy as a Transitional Genre. Part VI: Autobiographical: 31. From Philosophy to Post–Philosophy. 32. Trotsky and the Wild Orchids. 33. Biography and Philosophy. 34. The Fire of Life. Guide to Further Reading. Index.

Christopher J. Voparil is on the Graduate Faculty of Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, OH, where he teaches philosophy and political theory. He is the author of Richard Rorty: Politics and Vision (2006) , and has published articles in Contemporary Pragmatism, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Philosophy and Social Criticism, and Education and Culture. He is also the current Secretary of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, New York.  His most recent book is  The Pragmatic Turn (Polity, 2010).