1. The gloves were off as philosophers took on Richard Rorty's some- times curious but always earnest rethinking of philosophy in the several decades before his death in 2007. Wherever you come out on Rorty's conclusions about the utility of such basic notions as "facts' and "truth/" it seems clear that he has joined the ranks of other philosoph- ical iconoclasts who left behind a good deal of insecurity concerning the susceptibilities of Western philosophy to attacks upon its most basic presuppositions.