PRAGMATISM AND LIBERALISM, RATIONALISM AND IRRATIONALISM: A RESPONSE TO RICHARD RORTY

In: Polity: the journal of the Northeastern Political Science Association, Band 23, Heft 3, S. 357-372

Abstract

RICHARD RORTY HAS SOUGHT TO ASSOCIATE PRAGMATISM AND LIBERALISM WITH POSTMODERNIST CRITICAL ANALYSIS. THIS ARTICLE CHALLENGES RORTY, ARGUING THAT HIS EFFORT RESTS ON A DISPUTABLE CONCEPTION OF PRAGMATISM AND LEADS TO AN INADEQUATE VERSION OF LIBERAL POLITICAL THEORY. THE AUTHOR INSISTS THAT A PEIRCEAN PRAGMATIC RATIONALISM YIELDS A VERY DIFFERENT KIND OF LIBERAL POLITICAL THEORY THAN THAT PRODUCED BY RORTY'S IRRATIONALISM.