Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 — June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. He had a long and diverse academic career, including positions as Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton, Kenan Professor of Humanities at the University of Virginia, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University. His complex intellectual background gave him a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the analytic tradition in philosophy he would later famously reject. The philosophical program he developed included a rejection of a representationalist account of knowledge, a concept he referred to as a "mirror of nature," which he saw as a holdover from Platonism and pervasive throughout the history of philosophy. In response to this tradition, which he saw embodied by analytic philosophy, Rorty developed a novel form of pragmatism in which scientific and philosophical methods are merely contingent "vocabularies" which are abandoned or adopted over time according to social conventions and usefulness. Abandoning the representationalist account of knowledge, Rorty believed, would lead to a state of mind he referred to as "ironism", in which people are completely aware of the contingency of their placement in history and of their vocabulary. For Rorty, this brand of philosophy is always tied to the notion of "social hope," that without the ideas of representation and other concepts standing in the way between the mind and the world, human society would be more free. Much of his work explicates what a "postmetaphysical" culture that has abandoned representationalist epistemology would look like, incorporating a pragmatist naturalism that treats science as a tool towards liberalism. His best known book is Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979).

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Rorty is one of the most widely discussed and most controversial of philosophers of recent years, and his works have provoked thoughtful responses from many well-respected philosophers. In Robert Brandom's anthology, entitled Rorty and His Critics, for example, Rorty's philosophy is discussed by Donald Davidson, Jürgen Habermas, Hilary Putnam, John McDowell, Jacques Bouveresse, and Daniel Dennett, among others. Amazon.com: Rorty and His Critics (Philosophers and their Critics): Robert B. Brandom: Books

John McDowell is strongly influenced by Rorty, particularly by Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979). In continental philosophy, authors such as Jürgen Habermas, Gianni Vattimo, Jacques Derrida, Albrecht Wellmer, Hans Joas, Chantal Mouffe, Simon Critchley, Esa Saarinen and Mike Sandbothe are influenced in different ways by Rorty's thinking.

Although Rorty was a hardened liberal, his political and moral philosophies have been attacked from the Left, some of whom believe them to be insufficient frameworks for social justice. Rorty was also criticized by others for his rejection of the idea that science can depict the world. One criticism, especially of Contingency, irony, and solidarity is that Rorty's philosophical 'hero', the ironist, is an elitist figure. Rob Reich - The Paradoxes of Education in Rorty's Liberal Utopia Rorty claims that the majority of people would be "commonsensically nominalist and historicist" but not ironist. These people would combine an ongoing attention to the particular as opposed to the transcendent (nominalism), with an awareness of their place in a continuum of contingent lived experience alongside other individuals (historicist), without necessarily having continual doubts about the resulting worldview as the ironist does. An ironist is someone who: 1) "has radical and continuing doubts about their final vocabulary"; 2) "realizes that argument phrased in their vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve these doubts"; and 3) "does not think their vocabulary is closer to reality than others" (all 73, Contingency, irony, and solidarity).

Rorty often draws on a broad range of other philosophers to support his views, and his interpretation of their works has been contested. Richard Rorty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Since Rorty is working from a tradition of re-interpretation, he remains uninterested in 'accurately' portraying other thinkers, but rather in utilizing their work in the same way a literary critic might use a novel. His essay "The Historiography of Philosophy: Four Genres" is a thorough description of how he treats the greats in the history of philosophy.

As detailed in Contingency, irony, and solidarity, many philosophical criticisms against Rorty are made using axioms that are explicitly rejected within Rorty's own philosophy. For instance, Rorty defines allegations of irrationality as affirmations of vernacular "otherness", and so accusations of irrationality are not only brushed aside, but are expected during any argument.

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Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Contingency, irony, and solidarity

Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth

Essays on Heidegger and Others

Achieving Our Country

Rorty and His Critics

On Human Rights more less

Reception and Criticism more less

Select Bibliography more less

Further Reading more less

Books

Articles

Essays and Articles by Rorty

Book Reviews by Rorty

Interviews

Obituaries, Eulogies and Memorials

Search - List of Books by Richard Rorty

Quotes more less

Biography more less

Major Works more less

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Contingency, irony, and solidarity

Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth

Essays on Heidegger and Others

Achieving Our Country

Rorty and His Critics

On Human Rights more less

Reception and Criticism more less

Select Bibliography more less

Further Reading more less

Books

Articles

Essays and Articles by Rorty

Book Reviews by Rorty

Interviews

Obituaries, Eulogies and Memorials

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