Richard Rorty

Philosopher   

Rorty was raised as an atheist by parents who were Trotskyites. Although his politics are not as left-wing as his parents, he says that he has become "more and more raucously secularist" as he has gotten older. In his essay, "Trotsky and the Wild Orchids," Rorty complains about right-wing conservatives who assume that he is a moral relativist because of his atheism: "The orthodox tend to think that people who, like the postmodernists and me, believe neither in God nor in some suitable substitute, must feel that everything is permitted, that everybody can do what they like." (p. 48)

--JCP