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In this article, I aim to resuscitate discussions about the value of pragmatism for public administration by identifying some pragmatist tools that can transform the structures and processes of the administrative state. First, public administrators, having adopted a pragmatist fallibilism, will be able to make decisions and act in the absence of certainty. Second, the pragmatist emphasis on participatory inquiry makes possible a more democratic administrative state. Third, pragmatism helps define a new role for experts and expertise that can be used to realize the goals of democratic administration.

The deliberative turn in political philosophy sees theorists attempting to ground democratic legitimacy in free, rational, and public deliberation among citizens. However, feminist theorists have criticized prominent accounts of deliberative democracy, and of the public sphere that is its site, for being too exclusionary. Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser, and Seyla Benhabib show that deliberative democrats generally fail to attend to substantive inclusion in their conceptions of deliberative space, even though they endorse formal inclusion. If we take these criticisms seriously, we are tasked with articulating a substantively inclusive account of deliberation. I argue in this article that enriching existing theories of deliberative democracy with Fricker's conception of epistemic in/justice yields two specific benefits. First, it enables us to detect instances of epistemic injustice, and therefore failures of inclusion, within deliberative spaces. Second, it can act as a model for constructing deliberative spaces that are more inclusive and therefore better able to ground democratic legitimacy.

In this paper, I contribute to the ongoing investigation of the similarities and dissimilarities between feminism and pragmatism—a project explored more than fifteen years ago in the Hypatia special issue on Feminism and Pragmatism (1993)—by looking at the value of Richard Rorty's work for feminist theorists and activists. In this paper, I defend Rorty against three central feminist criticisms: 1) that Rorty's defense of liberal irony relies upon a problematic delineation between public and private, 2) that Rorty's endorsement of reform over revolution is too conservative to be of use for feminism, and 3) that the role of the ironist in social progress is not useful for, nor does it accurately reflect the history of, the feminist movement. I argue that these criticisms can be mitigated by being located within the broader context of Rorty's philosophical and political commitments, which we are now in a better position to understand and thus revisit. More specifically, I contend that bringing together Rorty's private discourse of redescription with his public discourse of justification provides for feminists new methods for animating social progress. I conclude by offering examples of how adopting a Rortyan perspective would be well-suited to achieving further feminist aims.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Abbreviations of Works by Richard Rorty -- List of Contributors -- Introduction: Stretched Thin: Rorty's Ethical Vision -- 1. Against Human Nature -- 2. Against Categorical Imperatives -- 3. Against Moral Principles -- 4. Against Philosophical Expertise -- Overview of Chapters -- Notes -- Works By Rorty -- Other Works -- Part I: Creating Moral Communities and Creating Selves -- Chapter 1: Reading Rorty in Tehran, or What Happened When I Road-Tested Rorty's Philosophy of Life Inside an Iranian Prison -- Act One -- Act Two: The Crisis -- Act Three -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 2: Self-Creation and Community: Nietzsche, Foucault, Rorty -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 3: Richard Rorty, Ethnocentrism, and Moral Community: A Westerner's Response to FGM -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 4: Rorty's Hope of Achieving a Global Civilization -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Part II: Imagination, Care, and Virtue -- Chapter 5: Imagination as a Social Virtue -- Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom -- The World as a Social Poem -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 6: Can Trees Care?: The Overstory and Rorty's Ideal of Inspirational Literature -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 7: Richard Rorty on the "Too Sane" -- Liberals: The "Too Sane" -- The Sagacious Turn -- Jack, the Dog -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Chapter 8: Scientific Method and Moral Virtues -- From Method to Attitude in Classical Pragmatism -- Scientific Method without Scientism -- Scientific Inquiry and Moral Virtues -- Notes -- Works by Rorty -- Other Works -- Part III: Engagements with Moral Philosophy -- Chapter 9: Talking with the Better-Looking Animals: Richard Rorty on Moral Status.

This book contains diverse and critical reflections on Richard Rorty's contributions to ethics, an aspect of his thought that has been relatively neglected. Together, they demonstrate that Rorty offers a compelling and coherent ethical vision. The book's chapters, grouped thematically, explore Rorty's emphasis on the importance of moral imagination, social relations, language, and literature as instrumental for ethical self-transformation, as well as for strengthening what Rorty called "social hope," which entails constant work toward a more democratic, inclusive, and cosmopolitan society and world. Several contributors address the ethical implications of Rorty's commitment to a vision of political liberalism without philosophical foundations. Others offer critical examinations of Rorty's claim that our private or individual projects of self-creation can or should be held apart from our public goals of ameliorating social conditions and reducing cruelty and suffering. Some contributors explore hurdles that impede the practical applications of certain of Rorty's ideas. The Ethics of Richard Rorty will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in American philosophy and ethics.

Introduction : Perspectives on Pragmatism and Justice / Susan Dieleman, David Rondel, and Christopher J. Voparil -- Justice as a Larger Loyalty / Richard Rorty -- Abnormal Justice / Nancy Fraser -- Pragmatism's Contribution to Nonideal Theorizing: Fraser, Addams, and Rorty / Christopher J. Voparil -- Empirical Approaches to Injustice : Elizabeth Anderson and the Pragmatists -- Ideal and Actual in Dewey's Political Theory / Matthew Festenstein -- Justice in Context / Ruth Anna Putnam -- Realism, Pragmatism, and Critical Social Epistemology / Susan Dieleman -- Social Inequality, Power, and Politics : Intersectionality in Dialogue with American Pragmatism / Patricia Hill Collins -- Pragmatism and Dreams of Justice : Between Radical Black Philosophy and Deweyan Democracy / V. Denise James -- Contesting Injustice : Why Pragmatist Political Thought Needs Du Bois / Colin Koopman -- Pragmatism, Racial Injustice, and Epistemic Insurrection : Toward an Insurrectionist Pragmatism / José Medina -- An Aesthetics of Resistance : Deweyan Experimentalism and Epistemic Injustice / Paul C. Taylor -- Setting Aside Hope : A Pragmatist Approach to Racial Justice / Shannon Sullivan -- Reconsidering Deweyan Democracy / Hilary Putnam -- Dewey and the Problem of Justice / Peter Manicas -- (What) Can Pragmatists Think About Justice? : Pragmatism and Liberal Egalitarianism / Robert B. Talisse -- A Pragmatist Account of Legitimacy and Authority : Holmes, Ramsey, and the Moral Force of Law / Cheryl Misak -- William James on Justice and the Sacredness of Individuality / David Rondel

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I The Promise and Peril of James's Philosophy for Feminism -- 1 The Feminine- Mystical Threat to Masculine- Scientific Order -- 2 "The Woman Question" James's Negotiations with Natural Law Theory and Utilitarianism -- 3 Women and William James -- 4 Lady Pragmatism and the Great Man The Need for Feminist Pragmatism -- Part II Pragmatist Ethics of Care -- 5 The Energies of Women William James and the Ethics of Care -- 6 William James and the Will to Care for Unfamiliar Others The Masculinity of Care? -- Part III Embodiment and Emotion -- 7 Habit, Relaxation, and the Open Mind James and the Increments of Ethical Freedom -- 8 James and Feminist Philosophy of Emotion -- 9 "A Perverse Kind of Pleasure" James, the Body, and Women's Mystical Experience -- 10 The Will Not to Believe Pragmatism, Oppression, and Standpoint Theory -- 11 Incredulity and Advocacy Thinking After William James -- Afterword -- Contributors -- Index