Abstract

Richard Rorty is first introduced as both the best known and the most controversial neopragmatist. This introduction then offers a sketch of Rorty’s version of pragmatism that focuses on his democratic anti-authoritarianism, whose transformative aspiration must be taken seriously. The introduction then outlines the main themes of Rorty scholarship for users of the Handbuch, e.g. the questions of truth, realism, relativism, and religion. The debates in the scholarship revolve around Rorty’s transformative aspiration and around what are taken to be the (too rigid) key distinctions he draws: argumentation/redescription, causation/justification, and private/public.One goal of this companion is to continue the conversation among researchers about Rorty. However, it is primarily intended to provide a systematic and comprehensive overview. The presentation of a systematic and comprehensive overview of Rorty’s work informs the resulting structure and individual parts of the volume. The introduction concludes with acknowledgments and general remarks about Rorty’s neopragmatism.