Richard Rorty, The Communitarian Impulse

Text of Professor Rorty's Address

RICHARD M. RORTY, an internationally recognized philosopher and Professor at Stanford University, has received fellowship awards from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He has been a fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to holding teaching positions at Yale University, Wellesley College and Princeton University, Dr. Rorty has been a visiting professor at Frankfurt and Heidelberg universities.

Hailed by the New York Times as "the most influential contemporary American philosopher" today, Dr. Rorty has served as president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and has chaired the Association’s Committee on the Status and Future of the Profession. He is in demand as a lecturer throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

In addition to publishing articles in various journals and collections, Dr. Rorty has written six books that have been translated into twelve languages. His most recent books are Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America and Essays on Heidegger and Others. He is completing The Hope of Pragmatism and Truth and Progress.

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