Rorty Review

There is an excellent review by the rebel pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty in the LRB about Scott Soames two volume history of analytic philosophy (Soames’ response is here). Having come out of (and largely turned my back on) this tradition, I found it especially interesting.

I got the link from one of the best academic group blogs on the net, Crooked Timber, where the analytic philosopher Brian Weatherson concedes Rorty’s point in the review that Soames has underemphasized the importance of epistemological debates about correspondence theories of truth. Rorty’s own anti-correspondence pragmatism and interaction with “continental” philosophers outside the English-speaking world has made him unpopular, if not a total outcast. However, I think if anything it is admirable that he has maintained as much interaction with the world of analytic philosophers, with whom I find it more and more difficult to converse, the further I wander astray.