Last Conceptual Revolution

Eric M. Gander is Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech at Baruch College, City University of New York, where he teaches classes in persuasion and politics.

"Gander writes something about Rorty that has needed saying for quite some time. Most authors simply make quiet obeisance to Rorty. They accept Rorty on his own terms and read Rorty into this discipline's critique of foundationalism. Gander does not fall into this trap. The Last Conceptual Revolution is an essential read for any communication scholar who finds the attack on foundationalism unsatisfying and for anyone who takes seriously the relationship between rhetoric, politics and philosophy." — David Grassmick, Centre College"Stylistically, Gander engages Rorty in a series of prosopopoeia, often giving voices in the debates to the perspectives of others such as Freud, Bloom, Derrida, Burke, and many more. In almost eristic fashion, invoking images of the Platonic dialectical method, Gander quarrels and, at times, nit-picks his way through Rorty's ironism, his interpretation of liberal democratic theory, and ultimately, liberalism itself. It is an engaging read." — David Cratis Williams, International Center for the Advancement of Political Communication and Argumentation

• Preface Introduction: The Sense of an Ending 1. "Locating" Rorty's Utopia The End of PhilosophyThe Beginning of Irony2. Liberalism: Above and Below the Surface Liberalism and CrueltyLiberalism and HumiliationLiberalism, Humiliation, and the Ironist Self3. Sticks and Speech: Is There a Difference? Liberalism and ReasonUniversality, Transparency, and TruthCritical Coda: Answering Hitler4. Characters and Citizenship: A Literary Redescription Philosophy versus LiteratureCharacters and Their WorldviewsConclusion: Richard Rorty — Inscrutable to the LastIndex