How to Move Beyond Rorty?

Preview: /Review: Randall Auxier, Eli Kramer, and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, eds. Rorty and Beyond (Lanham, Md, Lexington Books, 2019), 314 pages./ Richard Rorty (1931 – 2007) became a highly controversial figure, both within and without the ranks of academic philosophy upon publication of his 1979 book, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. The controversy over Rorty intensified with his writings over the remaining years of his life and beyond. Co-edited by Randall Auxier, Eli Kramer, and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński and including sixteen original essays, this new book, Beyond Rorty studies Rorty’s work with the passage of the years following his death to re-assess his significance and to consider ways in which philosophers might both learn from and move beyond his work. The volume originated in a conference held on Rorty’s work in 2013 at Opole University, Poland. It includes both papers presented at the conference together with additional submissions. The essays offer many perspectives on Rorty while seeking to move beyond his work in areas including metaphysics and epistemology, social philosophy, axiology, philosophy of religion, and more. The following review of Beyond Rorty discusses each of the essays in the volume together with the introductory essays by Auxier and Kramer to explore directions which contemporary philosophy might take to move beyond Rorty.