Richard Rorty: Education, Philosophy, and Politics

(Paperback)

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Richard Rorty's neopragmatist philosophy marks him as one of the most gifted and controversial thinkers of his time. Antifoundationalism and antirepresentationalism are the guiding motifs in his thought. He wants to jettison a set of philosophical distinctionsappearance/reality, mind/body, morality/prudencethat have dominated and shaped the history of Western philosophy since the time of Plato. It is a position that has propelled him into a series of heated debates with philosophers who are the most influential of their generationanalytic philosophers such as Quine, Davidson, Rawls, and Putnam; as well as Continental philosophers, including Habermas, Derrida, Foucault, and Lyotard. At the same time, Rorty's work has helped to break down the artificial separation between these two wings of Western philosophy by acting as an intellectual bridge between them. This distinctive collection by scholars from around the world focuses upon the cultural, educational, and political significance of his thought. The nine essays which comprise the collection examine a variety of related themes: Rorty's neopragmatism, his view of philosophy, his philosophy of education and culture, Rorty's comparison between Dewey and Foucault, his relation to postmodern theory, and, also his form of political liberalism.

Reviews

Richard Rorty is an edifying, analytical, informative and interesting book, a task the editors set for themselves and delivered. * Philosophy in Review *
A wide-ranging examination of Rorty's philosophical positions, his views about politics, and the applicability of these to education. * Teachers College Record *

Author Bio

Michael Peters holds a joint post as professor of education at the Universities of Auckland and Glasgow. Paulo Ghiraldelli, Jr., is professor of contemporary philosophy at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.