Richard Rorty is one of the most widely read living philosophers; yet, few people would want to call themselves "Rortians" or to be considered to be in too much accord with his positions. The foremost contemporary pragmatist thinker, Rorty sees his thought as a continuation of the tradition set by William James and John Dewey. He rekindled widespread interest in pragmatist thought by merging traditional pragmatist ideas with the views of contemporary thinkers such as Donald Davidson, Wilfrid Sellars, and W. V. Quine. His progression from philosopher to social commentator and political theorist has provoked a great deal of interest and admiration but also much criticism. He has been called everything from "the most interesting philosopher in the world" (on the dust jacket for his Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, 1989) to a "pseudodeviant" (by David Brooks), and virtually no one familiar with his work remains neutral as to its...