Thanks for that.
Was Rorty of the Critical Theory school? I had a high school friend who went to Harvard Law. We had long debates and he was always pushing Rorty’s legal writings on me. I don’t remember much about Rorty’s writings except that I couldn’t figure out what his first principles were, although I suspected that he was a Marxist.
I believe Rorty was Critical Theory yes. But honestly, it has been a long time. I got the PhD in Educational Philosophy and then worked as a Library Cataloger. So I read all these subjectivist and existentialist and then worked in probably the most non-subjective and non existential area there is in academia.
That said, I always enjoyed reading Rorty because, unlike Heidegger and Dewey his points were clear and well reasoned. He also didn’t seem to inject personal politics into his writings or if he did I didn’t notice. Even when I disagreed with him I could appreciate the argument. His book “Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature” was a pleasure to read and highly recommended.
A pretty good overview of the growth of Post Modernism can be found in the works of the late Francis Schaeffer. Although he puts an evangelical Christian spin on it he provides a pretty good summary of the development of post modernism even for a non-Christian.
Try his book “How Should We Then Live” I don’t think it is in print so try a used book store. This book was also produced into a series of films and is available on You Tube for free though they are a bit dry.
https://youtu.be/Z0Hr0RLHxnI?list=PL966B5BE4DC18D06C