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.

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).

Leseprobe

Preface Acknowledgments Source Acknowledgments Abbreviations General Introduction Part I: Toward Philosophy without Mirrors Part II: Conversations with Analytic Philosophy Part III: From Antirepresentationalism to Political Liberalism Part IV: Pragmatism, Literature, and Democracy Part V: Philosophy as Cultural Politics Part VI: Autobiographical Guide to Further Reading Index