Rorty and Dewey on Warrant

In this paper I examine Rorty's conception of justification. I first approach the question by evoking Putnam's statement that Rorty is, unlike classical pragmatists, committed to cultural relativism, and Brandom's complaint that Rorty is still too close to what Brandom takes to be the "dark side" of classical pragmatism, i.e. instrumentalism. Then, I turn to Dewey's concept of "warranted assertibility" in order to refute both criticisms Finally, I argue that the real divergence between Rorty and Dewey has to do with the notion of "community."