Rorty's Peircean Realism

This paper advances the claim that Rorty was, at least for a time, by his own lights, a Peircean realist. Further, I argue that the distinctive version of realism the early Rorty labels ‘Peircean’ is a useful notion for understanding Rorty’s mature positions. Familiarity with Rorty’s early interest in and surprising affinities with Peirce sheds light on unrecognized continuities between their philosophies that currently prevailing views of each tend to obscure. The central insights is that Rorty turns out to be more of a realist, as traditionally understood, and Peirce less of one, than we might expect.