Definition for View source for Rorty, Richard

Rorty, Richard (1931 to 2007): American Pragmatist philosopher. Although Rorty began his career as an Analytic philosopher, his study of Dewey led him to an eventual position which can be called “Post-Analytic.” Perhaps because Rorty’s Analytic chops were so respected already, his turn towards newer, and arguably more subtle, modes of investigation, as manifest in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, caused a sensation of sorts in academic circles. (This work was also one of the first published books of its kind to bear the author’s smiling image on its cover, a choice which added to Rorty’s unofficial “philosopher-as-rock-star” status.) As his thought progressed, Rorty turned increasingly towards considering thinkers who fell quite outside the mainstream of Analytic philosophy (e.g., Foucault, Derrida, and, most pertinently, Heidegger). His final writings dealt with progressive politics, and religion in public life.