The Philosophy of Richard Rorty

The first volume in the Library of Living Philosophers appeared in 1939, the brainchild of the late Professor Paul A. Schilpp, who perceived that it would help to eliminate confusions and endless sterile disputes over interpretation if great philosophers could be confronted on a range of questions by their capable philosophical peers and asked to reply to each of them. As well as the criticisms and replies, each volume would include a photograph, a handwriting sample, an intellectual autobiography, and a complete bibliography of the great philosopher's works.

The Library of Living Philosophers has exceeded even Schilpp's expectations, enabling the outstanding philosophers of each generation to do more than clarify, by extending and elaborating their thoughts. A volume in the Library of Living Philosophers is not merely a commentary on a philosopher's work: it is a crucial part of that work.

Richard Rorty transformed the discipline of philosophy during the last quarter of the twentieth century, while setting it on a new path for the twenty-first. In epistemology, the philosophy of language, culture, value, and politics, the impact of his thought is impossible to measure. Having achieved early prominence as a theorist and practitioner of analytic philosophy, Rorty directed criticism at the conventional pursuits and methods of philosophy, particularly attacking wide-spread preoccupation with questions of truth, representation, and the foundations of knowledge. He became the center of tremendous controversy, within and beyond the academy. This volume brings together many of Rorty's best critics and supporters for a comprehensive assessment of his achievement and a final defense of the views for which he became so widely known. Richard Rorty died on June 7, 2007. His contributions to this volume, in the form of an intellectual autobiography and replies to critics, are among the very last things he wrote.

Sir Michael Dummett is one of the most influential of living philosophers. Dummett has made many contributions to philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, and metaphysics. His most celebrated achievement is his new way of looking at the distinction between realism and antirealism. In addition to philosophy, Dummett has written on immigration law, English usage, Roman Catholic doctrine, and the history of the tarot.

Randall E. Auxier (right) Editor of the Library of Living Philosophers, is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is author of Time, Will, and Purpose (2010) and numerous scholarly articles, reviews, and popular essays. He is editor of the scholarly journal The Pluralist, General Editor of The Collected Writings of Josiah Royce, and editor of numerous other books, including Responses to Royce (2000), Hartshorne and Brightman on God, Process, and Persons (with Mark Y.A. Davies, 2001), and in the Library of Living Philosophers, volumes on Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Marjorie Grene, Jaakko Hintikka, and Michael Dummett (all with Lewis Edwin Hahn).
The late Lewis Edwin Hahn was editor of the Library of Living Philosophers from 1981 to 2001. As Paul Schilpp's successor he edited three LLP volumes with Schilpp and eight volumes as sole editor, then conceived, planned, and began the creation of seven more volumes. He authored A Contextualistic Theory of Perception (1942), Value: A Co-operative Inquiry (with John Dewey and others, 1949), and A Contextualistic World View (2001). Professor Hahn co-edited The Early Works of John Dewey, 1882-1898 (1967-1972) and worte numerous articles for scholarly journals and collections.