On Philosophy and Philosophers

Richard Rorty (1931–2007) was Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, California. W. P. Małecki is Assistant Professor of Literary Theory at the University of Wrocław, Poland. Chris Voparil teaches political theory and philosophy at Union Institute & University, Cincinnati.

• Introduction. Rorty as a Critical Philosopher Wojciech Małecki and Christopher Voparil; Part I. Early Papers: 1. Philosophy as Ethics; 2. Philosophy as Spectatorship and Participation; 3. Kant as a Critical Philosopher; 4. The Paradox of Definitism; 5. Reductionism; 6. Phenomenology, Linguistic Analysis, and Cartesianism: Comments on Ricoeur; 7. The Incommunicability of 'Felt Qualities'; 8. Kripke on Mind-Body Identity; Part II. Later Papers: 9. Philosophy as Epistemology: Reply to Hacking and Kim; 10. Naturalized Epistemology and Norms: Replies to Goldman and Fodor; 11. The Objectivity of Values; 12. What is Dead in Plato; 13. The Current State of Philosophy in the U.S.; 14. Brandom's Conversationalism: Davidson and Making It Explicit; 15. Bald Naturalism and McDowell's Hylomorphism; 16. Reductionist vs. Neo-Wittgensteinian Semantics; 17. Remarks on Nishida and Nishitani.

'The Rorty that emerges from these essays is an ardent but not doctrinaire pragmatist and naturalist, who warns about the political dangers inherent in the idealist and anti-naturalist positions, while also seeing the risks of a headlong rush by philosophers into accepting Locke's vision of the philosopher as a follower, not a leader, a mere 'under-labourer, removing some of the Rubbish,' in the wake of 'the incomparable Mr. Newton.' This volume sets a timely example of how a politically engaged philosopher can put hard won expertise to valuable use.' Daniel C. Dennett