Rorty, Habermas, and Radical Social Criticism

In this chapter, we make three connected claims. First, despite Rorty’s expressed ‘bourgeois liberal’ reformism, there are philosophical resources within his political philosophy which indicate a latent programme of radical social criticism. Second, we argue against the charge that Rorty is a relativist who lacks the necessary foundations for social criticism by comparing the liberalisms of Rorty and Jürgen Habermas. Thirdly, we argue that Rorty’s anti-foundationalism would commit him, by his own lights, to engage in radical criticism of actually-existing liberalism. On this account of Rorty’s political philosophy, the idea that redescription of our social situation might take us beyond bourgeois liberalism becomes a real possibility.