Pragmatism & Liberalism, Rationalism & Irrationalism: A Response to Richard Rorty

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.