Rorty, the American pragmatist philosopher, has died at the age of 75. I saw news of this via Arts and Letters Daily, which linked to a brief notice in Telos (a journal of political and social thought).
Rorty's most referenced work was 1979's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. His most recent was Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers IV (2007). For those not familiar with Rorty and (knowing scienceblogs readers) who may seek to reduce him either to leftist, po-mo, irrelevant, or an aid to the right, fear not that I'm sure all such critiques had been leveled against him in his life.
Just to say: He was a big deal.
More like this
Richard Rorty has died. I was one of those innumerable undergraduates who, after failing to understand Heidegger or Wittgenstein or Quine or Davidson, picked up Rorty and felt enlightened. The man had a tremendous facility for interpreting the philosophy of others.
First, an obituary by his friend, Jürgen Habermas. It begins with a story of Rorty making light of the illness that ultimately killed him:
I'm a fan of both Dennett and Rorty*, and I thought this touching anecdote from Dennett really captures a crucial difference between the two philosophers:
Via Will Wilkerson, I lea
My condolences.