The Ethics, Epistemology, and Politics of Richard Rorty (Routledge Studies in American Philosophy)

This book features fourteen original essays that critically engage the philosophy of Richard Rorty, with an emphasis on his ethics, epistemology, and politics. Inspired by James’ and Dewey’s pragmatism, Rorty urged us to rethink the role of science and truth with a liberal-democratic vision of politics. In doing so, he criticized philosophy as a sheer scholastic endeavor and put it back in touch with our most pressing cultural and human needs. The essays in this volume employ the conceptual tools and argumentative techniques of analytic philosophy and pragmatism and demonstrate the relevance of Rorty’s thought to the most urgent questions of our time. They touch on a number of topics, including but not limited to structural injustice, rule-following, Black feminist philosophy, legal pragmatism, moral progress, relativism, and skepticism. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars across disciplines who are engaging with the work of Richard Rorty.

Giancarlo Marchetti is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Perugia, Italy. He is the author of Il neo-pragmatismo (1999) and Verità e valori. Tra pragmatismo e filosofia analitica (2008), and co-editor of Il Pragmatismo. Dalle origini agli sviluppi contemporanei (2015) and Facts and Values: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Normativity (Routledge, 2017).