What Can We Hope For? : : Essays on Politics / / Richard Rorty; ed. by Chris Voparil, W. P. Malecki.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Rorty, Richard,
• MitwirkendeR: Malecki, W. P.,; Sassen, Saskia,; Voparil, Chris,
• HerausgeberIn: Malecki, W. P.,; Voparil, Chris,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)

Prescient essays about the state of our politics from the philosopher who predicted that a populist demagogue would become president of the United StatesRichard Rorty, one of the most influential intellectuals of recent decades, is perhaps best known today as the philosopher who, almost two decades before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, warned of the rise of a Trumpian strongman in America. What Can We Hope For? gathers nineteen of Rorty’s essays on American and global politics, including four previously unpublished and many lesser-known and hard-to-find pieces.In these provocative and compelling essays, Rorty confronts the critical challenges democracies face at home and abroad, including populism, growing economic inequality, and overpopulation and environmental devastation. In response, he offers optimistic and realistic ideas about how to address these crises. He outlines strategies for fostering social hope and building an inclusive global community of trust, and urges us to put our faith in trade unions, universities, bottom-up social campaigns, and bold political visions that thwart ideological pieties.Driven by Rorty’s sense of emergency about our collective future, What Can We Hope For? is filled with striking diagnoses of today’s political crises and creative proposals for solving them.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTE ON SOURCES -- INTRODUCTION The Philosopher and His Country -- I POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY -- 1 WHO ARE WE? -- 2 DEMOCRACY AND PHILOSOPHY -- 3 DEWEY AND POSNER ON PRAGMATISM AND MORAL PROGRESS -- 4 RETHINKING DEMOCRACY -- 5 FIRST PROJECTS, THEN PRINCIPLES -- II AMERICAN POLITICS -- 6 DOES BEING AN AMERICAN GIVE ONE A MORAL IDENTITY? -- 7 DEMONIZING THE ACADEMY -- 8 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND THE HOPE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE -- 9 THE INTELLECTUALS AND THE POOR -- 10 CAN AMERICAN EGALITARIANISM SURVIVE A GLOBALIZED ECONOMY? -- 11 BACK TO CLASS POLITICS -- 12 MAKING THE RICH RICHER -- 13 LOOKING BACKWARDS FROM THE YEAR 2096 -- III GLOBAL POLITICS -- 14 THE UNPREDICTABLE AMERICAN EMPIRE -- 15 POST-DEMOCRACY -- 16 HUMILIATION OR SOLIDARITY? -- 17 HALF A MILLION BLUE HELMETS? -- 18 A QUEASY AGNOSTICISM -- AFTERWORD Intellectuals and the Millennium -- NOTES -- INDEX