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Rorty’s Pragmatisms: How to Tease Them Apart and What to Make of Them

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Abstract

Were it not for Richard Rorty, pragmatism might no longer be a topic on which intellectuals feel obliged to have an informed view. What is it, though, that he endorsed and revived? The movement he championed has various representatives and vague boundaries. The claims he associated with it are numerous and the connections among them are loose, puzzling, and contested. Teasing apart some of the things he referred to as pragmatism permits us to clarify the merits, import, and influence of each. This chapter highlights the concerns that have led some of his closest associates to pit some of Rorty’s pragmatisms against others.

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Recommended Literature for Further Reading

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  • Kukla, Rebecca, and Mark Lance. 2009. ‘Yo!’ and ‘Lo!’: The pragmatic topography of the space of reasons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. A vigorously argued case for dropping the notion that declarative speech acts have a uniquely privileged position in our communicative social practices. Like the monographs by Bush and Farneth listed here, this book’s account of how communities, selves, and social identities are constituted and transformed unites pragmatist thinking about language with critical theories of race, class, and gender.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Religion, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Jeffrey Stout

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  1. Jeffrey Stout
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Correspondence to Jeffrey Stout .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. München, Deutschland

    Martin Müller

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  1. Münchner Volkshochschule, München, Deutschland

    Martin Müller Ph.D.

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Stout, J. (2023). Rorty’s Pragmatisms: How to Tease Them Apart and What to Make of Them. In: Müller, M. (eds) Handbuch Richard Rorty. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16253-5_70

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16253-5_70

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  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-16252-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-16253-5

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