•  10
    Pragmatism and Justice (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2017.
    Pragmatism and Justice is an interdisciplinary volume of new and seminal essays by political philosophers, social theorists, and scholars of pragmatism which provides a comprehensive introduction and lasting resource for scholars of pragmatist thought and questions of justice.
  •  1
    Rorty's Ethics of Responsibility
    In Alan Malachowski (ed.), A Companion to Rorty, Wiley. 2020.
    This essay seeks to illuminate the ethical concerns that animate Richard Rorty's philosophy. I argue that Rorty's ethics foregrounds as its central priority the issue of responsibility and frame Rorty's work as offering us a picture of ethical comportment in a postfoundational, pluralistic milieu, where citizens not only recognize the contingency of their own deepest beliefs but give up any sense of responsibilities owed to nonhuman authorities. To paraphrase Rorty, from any number of occasions,…Read more
  • Philosophy and Social Hope (1999)
    In Martin Müller (ed.), Handbuch Richard Rorty, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 289-301. 2023.
    Philosophy and Social Hope contains cogent accounts of Rorty’s core positions on truth, metaphysics, and ethics once hope replaces certainty. On display is his democracy-centered pragmatism’s wide range of application for promoting moral progress, the project of fostering richer and more humane lives of citizens and making communities more inclusive and just. This chapter situates the book’s chief philosophical claims within his larger project and provides an overview of his pragmatism’s emphasi…Read more
  •  9
    The figure of Richard Rorty stands in complex relation to the tradition of American pragmatism. On the one hand, his intellectual creativity, lively prose, and bridge-building fueled the contemporary resurgence of pragmatism. On the other, his polemical claims and selective interpretations function as a negative, fixed pole against which thinkers of all stripes define themselves. Virtually all pragmatists on the contemporary scene, whether classical or "new," Deweyan, Jamesian, or Peircean, use …Read more
  •  4
    On Philosophy and Philosophers: Unpublished Papers, 1960–2000 (edited book)
    with Wojciech Małecki
    Cambridge University Press. 2020.
    On Philosophy and Philosophers is a volume of unpublished philosophical papers by Richard Rorty, a central figure in late-twentieth-century intellectual debates and a primary force behind the resurgence of American pragmatism. The first collection of new work to appear since his death in 2007, these previously unseen papers advance novel views on metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, philosophical semantics and the social role of philosophy, critically engaging canonical and contemporary figures fr…Read more
  •  19
    On the Idea of Philosophy as Bildungsroman: Rorty and his Critics
    Contemporary Pragmatism 2 (1): 115-133. 2005.
    The appearance of several new works and a multivolume critical anthology devoted to Richard Rorty casts in bold relief the surprising lack of sympathetic interpretations his work has generated over the past few decades. After examining the complex nature of the critical reaction to Rorty, this essay reviews two new introductions to his thought that attempt to approach him in a spirit of hermeneutic charity. I argue that Rorty's somewhat neglected idea of treating philosophy as a Bildungsroman ma…Read more
  •  12
    Introduction to International Symposium on Richard Rorty
    with Federico Penelas
    Contemporary Pragmatism 11 (1): 1-4. 2014.
  •  7
    The Birth of Theory (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 69 (2): 377-379. 2015.
  •  24
    Richard Rorty: Politics and Vision
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2006.
    This book offers a fresh perspective on Richard Rorty by situating his work in the arena of political theory. Reinterpreting Rorty's much-maligned antirepresentationalism as a Romantic affirmation of the power of imaginative writing, Voparil firmly grounds Rorty in an American tradition that includes not only James and Dewey, but Emerson, Whitman, and James Baldwin, and initiates an overdue reassessment of this important thinker's value to the political discourse of the 21st century.
  •  56
    The Rorty Reader (edited book)
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2010.
    The first comprehensive collection of the work of Richard Rorty, The Rorty Reader brings together the influential American philosopher’s essential essays from over four decades of writings. Offers a comprehensive introduction to Richard Rorty's life and body of work Brings key essays published across many volumes and journals into one collection, including selections from his final volume of philosophical papers, Philosophy as Cultural Politics ) Contains the previously unpublished essay, “Redem…Read more
  • Politics and Vision in the Thought of Richard Rorty
    Dissertation, New School University. 2004.
    In this dissertation I present an interpretive approach to the thought of Richard Rorty that enables us to engage constructively with aspects of his writing that are sometimes given short shrift. I contend that Rorty can be fruitfully approached as a political theorist concerned with promulgating a new picture of the political world. Reading his practice of redescription as rooted in his temperament or personal vision, I argue that this vision, understood as an imaginative reordering of the worl…Read more
  •  18
    Given how much the tradition owes to Dewey’s pragmatic reconstruction of philosophy, that more is not written of a political bent by those working under the sign of pragmatism is to me always surprising. John McGowan’s Pragmatist Politics is a shining exception. The book’s aim is “to articulate and practice a liberal democratic ethos inspired primarily by the American pragmatist tradition.”1 Two compelling opening chapters lay out McGowan’s melioristic conception of pragmatism as a philosophy of…Read more
  •  9
    Dewey and Rorty on the Role of Non-Logical Changes in Belief
    In Jacquelyn Kegley & Krzyszof Piotr Skowronski (eds.), Persuasion and Compulsion in Democracy, Lexington. pp. 133. 2013.
  •  31
    To engage constructively with aspects of his writing sometimes given short shrift, in this paper I contend that Rorty can be fruitfully approached as a political theorist concerned with promulgating a new picture of the political world. Situating his recent thought as a political intervention aimed at revitalizing a moribund left allows us to take seriously his antirepresentationalist claims and evaluate his thought in terms of its political effects rather than accuracy of representation. By rea…Read more
  •  61
    Rortyan Cultural Politics and the Problem of Speaking for Others
    Contemporary Pragmatism 8 (1): 115-131. 2011.
    This paper examines Rorty's notion of philosophy as cultural politics. Highlighting its explicitly Deweyan origins, I trace this idea to Rorty's call in the 1970s for philosophers to be more involved in the cause of enlarging human freedom. Rorty brings philosophy into his project of expanding the conversation beyond the West to include excluded voices through literature and narrative. After underscoring Rorty's important contributions, I argue that rather than merely assimilating non-Western vo…Read more
  •  74
    The diversity of learning differences in today's college classrooms raises an array of difficult questions that pedagogical theory and practice have yet to address. The trend toward more individualized instruction presents a puzzle when considered alongside this new diversity, particularly in the context of classical ideals of liberal education. Drawing on the surprisingly timely educational writings of John Dewey, this essay attempts to sketch a pedagogical vision for the 21st century that shif…Read more
  •  18
    Rorty, Philosophy, and the Democratization of Culture
    International Journal of Cultural Research 1 (2): 114-116. 2011.
  •  23
    Richard Rorty: Politics and Vision
    Rowman & Littlefield. 2006.
    The first full-length work devoted to Richard Rorty from the perspective of political theory, this book offers a fresh assessment of the promise of the renowned pragmatist's project. Framing Rorty's discourse as one of meaning and persuasion rather than truth and accuracy of representation, Voparil sheds new light on many of Rorty's most misunderstood and maligned stances, including his practice of "redescription" and disavowal of "getting it right," as well as his embrace of the novel and "sent…Read more