Faculty

Profile

Richard J. Bernstein was the Vera List Professor Emertisu of Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at The New School for Social Research.

Dr. Bernstein was a celebrated scholar of American pragmatism. He wrote and taught across fields including social and political philosophy, critical theory and Anglo-American philosophy. He has edited and published numerous books, including Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics and Praxis (1983) and, most recently, Ironic Life (2016) and Pragmatic Encounters (2015). In 2003, MIT Press published an edited volume examining his work, with articles by Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, Nancy Fraser, and Charles Taylor. Dr. Bernstein helped shape the graduate faculty of The New School for Social Research, where he taught since 1989 and served as both chair of the Philosophy Department and dean. He received many honors, including the 1999 New School Distinguished Teacher’s Award. He holds a PhD from Yale University (1958).

Degrees Held

PhD 1958, Yale University

Recent Publications

Books

Why Read Hannah Arendt Now? (Polity, 2018)

Ironic Life (Polity, 2016)

Pragmatic Encounters (Routledge, 2015)

Violence: Thinking Without Banisters (Polity, 2013)

The Pragmatic Turn (Polity, 2010)

The Rorty Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)

The Abuse of Evil: The Corruption of Politics and Religion since 9/11 (Polity, 2006)

The New Constellation: The Ethical/Political Horizons of Modernity/ Postmodernity (MIT Press, 1991)

Philosophical Profiles (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)

Habermas and Modernity (editor) (Polity, 1985)

Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983)

Praxis and Action (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971)

John Dewey (1966)

Research Interests

American pragmatism, social and political philosophy, critical theory, Anglo-American philosophy