A Companion to Rorty

"Alan Malachowski's volume provides a synoptic view of Rorty's work--which spans six decades and several different philosophical conversations--and invites a wide variety of commentators, both sympathetic and critical, to a larger discussion about his legacies."
--Marianne Janack, John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, Hamilton College

A provocative and often controversial thinker, Richard Rorty was an adventurous, wide-ranging, and influential American philosopher known for revitalizing pragmatism during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Celebrated for his critique of philosophical inquiry as an enterprise seeking epistemic objectivity and universal truth, Rorty's thought spans unusually broad intellectual territory, and has been the subject of renewed interested to philosophers working in epistemology, metaphysics, the history of philosophy, and contemporary analytic philosophy. Having called for philosophers to abandon representationalist accounts of knowledge and language, Rorty introduced radical and challenging concepts to philosophy, generating divisive debate by advocating for a new form of American pragmatism and renouncing traditional epistemology.

While Rorty has been one of the most widely-discussed figures in modern philosophy, few commentators have dealt directly with the expansive reach of his thought or its implications for the f ields in which he worked. A Companion to Rorty is a comprehensive collection of essays by prominent scholars which together examine Rorty's groundbreaking body of work. Divided into six constituent parts, this volume offers a compelling and representative survey of the major developments in Rorty's intellectual trajectory, from his training in the history of philosophy and early work on consciousness and transcendental arguments, to the lasting impact of the landmark scholarship that brought him international renown. Later chapters consider his approach to pragmatism with its controversial appropriations from other philosophers, and give particular attention to his work in culture, politics, and ethics which continues to resonate in a range of disciplines including sociology, international relations, legal and political theory, and feminist studies.

Indispensable in its own right, A Companion to Rorty is a mature and comprehensive reference resource for advanced students and professional philosophers looking to engage with Rorty's intellectual legacy, offering new insight into one of the major philosophical minds of the twentieth century.