Simon Critchley [and others] ; edited by Chantal Mouffe.
New York :
Routledge,
1996.
ix, 88 pages ;
24 cm
Includes bibliographical references.
Deconstruction, pragmatism and the politics of democracy / Chantal Mouffe -- Remarks on deconstruction and pragmatism / Richard Rorty -- Deconstruction and pragmatism: is Derrida a private ironist or a public liberal? / Simon Critchley -- Response to Simon Critchley / Richard Rorty -- Deconstruction, pragmatism, hegemony / Ernesto Laclau -- Response to Ernesto Laclau / Richard Rorty -- Remarks on deconstruction and pragmatism / Jacques Derrida.
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Anyone wishing to understand the philosophical and political standpoints of Rorty and Derrida should read this book.
Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty are two of the most famous living philosophers. The current influence of Deconstruction and Pragmatism, two major intellectual traditions, would be unthinkable without their work. This ground-breaking book brings these two thinkers together in a critical confrontation between these two traditions. Derridean deconstruction and Rortian pragmatism are both accused by their enemies of undermining our ideas of truth and reason, but do their ideas lead to intellectual and political chaos? Both are committed to the democratic project but they reject the necessary link between universalism, rationalism and modern democracy and seek to clarify what is at stake intellectually and politically. Two other distinguished theorists, Simon Critchley and Ernesto Laclau, provide a critical context for their debate and bring out the importance of the convergences and differences between the two.