Feminist Interpretations of Richard Rorty - Re-reading the Cannon Series

Brief Description: When Richard Rorty died on June 8, 2007, obituaries lionized him as one of the worlds most influential cultural philosophers, and as a thinker whose work covered a wide and varied terrain of literature, philosophy, politics, aesthetics, and cultural critique. Most famous for his rejection of the analytic tradition, Rorty had a relationship to the philosophical canon, and the discipline of philosophy, that was as fraught and full of tensions as it is for most feminist philosophers. Rorty chose to use his 1990 Tanner Lecture on Human Values (the text of which is the first chapter in this volume) to side with feminists Marilyn Frye, Catherine MacKinnon, and Adrienne Rich, who tried to show the importance of opening up new logical space within which womens voices could be heard. Feminist Interpretations of Richard Rorty presents classic and new essays on Rortys engagement with feminist philosophy, including essays about the relevance for feminism of pragmatism, philosophy, rhetoric, realism, and liberalism. The chapters in this volume not only take up Rortys conversation with feminism; they also distill the debates that were the central concern of feminist theory in the late twentieth century and that continue to demand our responses, perhaps in slightly different forms, in the beginning of the twenty-first. In addition to the editor, the contributors are John C. Adams, Linda Martn Alcoff, Sharyn Clough, Nancy Fraser, Sabina Lovibond, Alessandra Tanesini, Georgia Warnke, and Stephen R. Yarbrough. Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; A discussion of issues raised by Richard Rorty's engagement with feminist philosophy. Includes essays about the relevance for feminism of pragmatism, philosophy, rhetoric, realism, and liberalism--Provided by publisher.; Avail. in cloth. Table of Contents: Contents PrefaceNancy Tuana AcknowledgmentsIntroductionMarianne Janack 1. Feminism and PragmatismRichard Rorty2. From Irony to Prophecy to Politics: A Reply to Richard RortyNancy Fraser3. Feminism and Pragmatism: A Reply to Richard Rorty Sabina Lovibond 4. Hope, Truth, and Rhetoric: Prophecy and Pragmatism in Service of Feminism s Cause John C. Adams5. Feminism, Ideology, and Deconstruction: A Pragmatist ViewRichard Rorty6. Democracy and InterpretationGeorgia Warnke7. Rorty s Antirepresentationalism in the Context of Sexual Violence Linda Martin Alcoff8. Drawing Battle Lines and Choosing Bedfellows: Rorty, Relativism, and Feminist Strategy Sharyn Clough9. Richard Rorty, Feminism, and the Annoyances of PragmatismStephen R. Yarbrough10. Naturalism and Normativity: Rorty and Barad Alessandra Tanesini Selected BibliographyContributors Index"Publisher Marketing: When Richard Rorty died on June 8, 2007, obituaries lionized him as one of the world s most influential cultural philosophers and as a thinker whose work covered a wide and varied terrain of literature, philosophy, politics, aesthetics, and cultural critique. Most famous for his rejection of the analytic tradition, Rorty had a relationship to the philosophical canon, and the discipline of philosophy, that was as fraught and full of tensions as it is for most feminist philosophers. Rorty chose to use his 1990 Tanner Lecture on Human Values (the text of which is the first chapter in this volume) to side with feminists Marilyn Frye, Catherine MacKinnon, and Adrienne Rich, who tried to show the importance of opening up new logical space within which women s voices could be heard. Feminist Interpretations of Richard Rorty presents classic and new essays on Rorty s engagement with feminist philosophy, including essays about the relevance for feminism of pragmatism, philosophy, rhetoric, realism, and liberalism. The chapters in this volume not only take up Rorty s conversation with feminism but also distill the debates that were the central concern of feminist theory in the late twentieth century and that continue to demand our responses, perhaps in slightly different forms, in the beginning of the twenty-first. In addition to the editor, the contributors are John C. Adams, Linda Martin Alcoff, Sharyn Clough, Nancy Fraser, Sabina Lovibond, Alessandra Tanesini, Georgia Warnke, and Stephen R. Yarbrough."

Contributor Bio:  Janack, Marianne Marianne Janack is the Sidney Wertimer Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College.