Rorty is one of the most widely discussed and most controversial philosophers in our time ^[8], and his works have provoked thoughtful responses from some of the most well-respected philosophers of his age. In 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.^[9]

John McDowell is strongly influenced by Rorty, in particular Rorty"s Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979). In the preface to Mind and World (pp. ix-x) McDowell states that "it will be obvious that Rorty"s work is [...] central for the way I define my stance here".

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^[10]. Rorty was also criticized by others for his rejection of the idea that science can depict the world.^[11]

One major criticism, especially of Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity is that Rorty"s philosophical "hero", the ironist, is an elitist figure ^[12]. Rorty claims that the majority of people would be "commonsensically nominalist and historicist" but not ironist.

Rorty often draws on a broad range of other philosophers to support his views, and his interpretation of their works has been contested ^[13]. 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 deion 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.^[14] 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^[15].

[edit] Select bibliography

• Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. ISBN
• Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982. ISBN
• Philosophy in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. (co-editor)
• Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN
• ivity, Relativism and Truth: Philosophical Papers I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN
• Essays on Heidegger and Others: Philosophical Papers II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN
• Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth Century America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. ISBN
• Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN
• Philosophy and Social Hope. New York: Penguin, 2000. ISBN
• Against Bosses, Against Oligarchies: A Conversation with Richard Rorty. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2002. ISBN
• The Future of Religion with Gianni Vattimo. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2005. ISBN
• Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

[edit] Further Reading

Books:

• Richard Rorty: politics and vision / Christopher Voparil., 2006
• Heidegger, Rorty, and the Eastern thinkers : a hermeneutics of cross-cultural understanding / Wei Zhang., 2006
• Richard Rorty: his philosophy under discussion / Andreas Vieth., 2005
• The concept of Rortyan Christian ironism / Odom, Barton Page., 2005
• Richard Rorty / Charles B Guignon., 2003
• Between Rorty and MacIntyre: A Kierkegaardian account of irony and moral commitment / Frazier, Bradley., 2003
• Richard Rorty"s American faith / Taub, Gad Shmuel., 2003
• The ethical ironist: Kierkegaard, Rorty, and the educational quest / Rohrer, Patricia Jean., 2003
• Doing philosophy as a way to individuation: Reading Rorty and Cavell / Kwak, Duck-Joo., 2003
• Richard Rorty / Alan R Malachowski., 2002
• Richard Rorty: critical dialogues / Matthew Festenstein., 2001
• Richard Rorty: education, philosophy, and politics / Michael Peters., 2001
• Religion and the Demise of Liberal Rationalism / Judd Owen., 2001
• Rorty and his critics / Robert Brandom., 2000
• On Rorty / Richard Rumana., 2000
• Philosophy and freedom : Derrida, Rorty, Habermas, Foucault / John McCumber., 2000
• A pragmatist"s progress?: Richard Rorty and American intellectual history / John Pettegrew., 2000
• Problems of the modern self: Reflections on Rorty, Taylor, Nietzsche, and Foucault / Dudrick, David Francis., 2000
• The last conceptual revolution: a critique of Richard Rorty"s political philosophy / Eric Gander., 1999
• Cultural otherness : correspondence with Richard Rorty / Anindita Niyogi Balslev., 1999
• The work of friendship : Rorty, his critics, and the project of solidarity / Dianne Rothleder., 1999
• Pragmatism and political theory : from Dewey to Rorty / Matthew Festenstein., 1997
• Debating the state of philosophy: Habermas, Rorty, and Kolakowski / J?zef Niznik., 1996
• For the love of perfection : Richard Rorty and liberal education / René Vincente Arcilla., 1995
• Rorty & pragmatism: the philosopher responds to his critics / Herman J Saatkamp., 1995
• Richard Rorty : prophet and poet of the new pragmatism / David L Hall., 1994
• Without God or his doubles : realism, relativism, and Rorty / D Vaden House., 1994
• Beyond postmodern politics : Lyotard, Rorty, Foucault / Honi Fern Haber., 1994
• After the demise of the tradition : Rorty, critical theory, and the fate of philosophy/ Kai Nielsen., 1991
• Reading Rorty: critical responses to Philosophy and the mirror of nature (and beyond) / Alan R Malachowski., 1990
• Rorty"s humanistic pragmatism : philosophy democratized / Konstantin Kolenda., 1990
• Pragmatist Aesthetics / Richard Shusterman. Rowman Littlefield 2000. [esp. Chapter 9: 236-261)

Articles:

• Rorty R / "The Fire of Life" POETRY / NOV 2007 [available online]

• Lynch S / On Richard Rorty"s use of the distinction between the private and the public

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES 15 (1): 97-120 MAR 2007

• Dombrowski DA / Rorty versus Hartshorne, or, poetry versus metaphysics (Richard Rorty, Charles Hartshorne)

METAPHILOSOPHY 38 (1): 88-110 JAN 2007

• Arriaga M / Richard Rorty"s anti-foundationalism and traditional philosophy"s claim of social relevance

INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY 45 (4): 467-482 DEC 2005

• Barthold LS / How hermeneutical is he? A gadamerian analysis of Richard Rorty

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 49 (3): 236-244 FAL 2005

• Stieb JA / Rorty on realism and constructivism

METAPHILOSOPHY 36 (3): 272-294 APR 2005

• Flaherty J / Rorty, religious beliefs, and pragmatism

INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY 45 (2): 175-185 JUN 2005

• Smith NH / Rorty on religion and hope

INQUIRY-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 48 (1): 76-98 FEB 2005

• Santos RJ / Richard Rorty"s philosophy of social hope

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 47 (4): 431-440 WIN 2003

• Miller CB / Rorty and moral relativism

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 10 (3): 354-374 DEC 2002

• Abrams JJ / Aesthetics of self-fashioning and cosmopolitanism - Foucault and Rorty on the art of living

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 46 (2): 185-192 SUM 2002

• Margolis J / Dewey"s and Rorty"s opposed pragmatisms

TRANSACTIONS OF THE CHARLES S PEIRCE SOCIETY 38 (1-2): 117-135 WIN-SPR 2002

• Talisse RB / A pragmatist critique of Richard Rorty"s hopeless politics

SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 39 (4): 611-626 WIN 2001

• Picardi E / Rorty, Sorge and truth

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES 9 (3): 431-439 Sp. Iss. SI AUG 2001

• McDermid DJ / Does epistemology rest on a mistake? Understanding Rorty on scepticism

CRITICA-REVISTA HISPANOAMERICANA DE FILOSOFIA 32 (96): 3-42 DEC 2000

• Owens J / The obligations of irony: Rorty on irony, autonomy, and contingency

REVIEW OF METAPHYSICS 54 (1): 27-41 SEP 2000

• Margolis J / Richard Rorty: Philosophy by other means

METAPHILOSOPHY 31 (5): 529-546 OCT 2000

• Kompridis N / So we need something else for reason to mean

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES 8 (3): 271-295 OCT 2000

• Cohen AJ / On Universalism: Commuitarians, Rorty, and ("ivist") "liberal metaphysicians"

SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 38 (1): 39-75 SPR 2000

• Rorty R / Response to Randall Peerenboom ("Rorty and the China Challenge")

PHILOSOPHY EAST & WEST 50 (1): 90-91 JAN 2000

• Peerenboom R / The limits of irony: Rorty and the China challenge

PHILOSOPHY EAST & WEST 50 (1): 56-89 JAN 2000