Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Rorty and the Mirror of Nature

by James Tartaglia

Richard Rorty is one of the most influential, controversial and widely-read philosophers of the twentieth century. In this GuideBook to Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature Tartaglia analyzes this challenging text and introduces and Rorty and the Mirror of Nature is an ideal starting-point for anyone new to Rorty, and essential reading for students in philosophy, cultural studies, literary theory and social science.

Genres: Philosophy

264 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2007

Reviews

[Error Theorist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough and quasi-in-depth guide to Richard Rorty's most famous book. The text moves fast and presupposes at least some background in the philosophy of language, but nothing that a few articles from IEP or SEP can't clear up. The author provides a handful of powerful arguments against some of Rorty's moves, and points out some key tensions such as his discussion of Bellarmine and Galileo and the tension between Rorty's Kuhnian outlook of the dispute and his commitment to Davidson's rejection of conceptual schemes.

Overall, this is a great introduction to the key work needed for understanding Rorty, his historicism, and his overall attack on philosophy.