RORTY,RICHARD, LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICS OF REDESCRIPTION

In recent years Richard Rorty has sought to develop an alternative to the familiar rationalist and natural rights ''vocabularies'' of libera lism. Unlike most critics of classical liberalism, however, Rorty esch ews attempts to argue against these vocabularies, and instead seeks to persuade his readers by redescribing the aspirations of a liberal soc iety in a more ''attractive'' way. I assess Rorty's redescriptive prac tice through an analysis of his ideal liberal polity. I contend that a lthough Rorty defends redescription as an alternative to ''normal'' ph ilosophical and theoretical argument, his redescriptive efforts fail o n their own terms: not only does it appear that there is no redescript ion in his descriptions, but he proves incapable of offering any insig hts into or exits from pressing problems in contemporary liberal socie ties. This, I submit, can be traced back to his unwillingness to inves tigate and redescribe power and power relations.