Unlike all other authors being read, this semester, Richard Rorty is alive and well, today. He is
one of a few American philosophers who is viewed as original and exiting in that sense that
could lead to an enduring reputation. Nevertheless, we are too close in time to know what his
reputation will be in the long term.
On the other hand, Rorty's book, Contingency, irony, and solidarity, is an excellent way to finish the semester. What he tries to do is to place everything philosophically important, in the last two centuries, in perspective. As a summary of themes exhibited throughout the course, Rorty's book gives us a sense of how Nietzsche, Freud, and Heidegger fit together and where Russell and Moore come in.
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