Defending Rorty

William M. Curtis is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Portland, where he teaches political theory, the history of political thought, and constitutional law. His research focuses on liberalism, pragmatism, and the normative challenges of modernity. He has published work on liberal theory, Charles Taylor, and Richard Rorty.

• Introduction: defending California: Richard Rorty's virtue liberalism; 1. Rorty's pragmatism: the critique of philosophy; 2. Rorty's pragmatic virtue liberalism; 3. Critics: from left to right; 4. Rorty vs Taylor: ontology, pluralism, and authoritarianism; 5. Rorty, religion, and pragmatic liberalism; 6. Rorty's liberal utopia and Huxley's pragmatist Island; 7. Conclusion.

'Depicting Richard Rorty as a neo-pragmatic 'virtue liberal', William M. Curtis provides us with the kind of defense that Rorty himself might have offered us had he been first and foremost a political theorist. Deeply grounded in the relevant literature, forcefully argued, and engagingly written, this book deserves the attention of all those interested in contemporary theories of democratic politics - whether or not they share the author's enthusiasm for Rorty's distinctive form of liberal utopianism.' Thomas Spragens, Duke University, North Carolina