I think Richard Rorty is great. He died not long ago. His prose style is as clear as a glass of ice water. He's a slippery old sophist....

Chomsky and Kripke are widely read.

I've been rereading Essays on Heidegger and Others and yet again I am delighted. Rorty's tone is right. He's a man who knows how to smile on planet Earth, and his thoughts come from a sense of courage and humor. He knows that philosophy is not a privileged genre, that "literature" is no less valuable or "true."

It's the music, not the words that matter. Even if it is "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star" Right? What does "true" mean? Does it mean anything like, true. Or, true! Or True? Or, TRUE. Or true ?

Any recommendations on current philosophers? (particular branch not important)

thanks!

Just a side question: Why the interest in current philosophers, as opposed to older ones? Wouldn't it be best to be reading the best philosophers of all time, regardless of whether they are alive or not?

Just a side question: Why the interest in current philosophers, as opposed to older ones? Wouldn't it be best to be reading the best philosophers of all time, regardless of whether they are alive or not?

Because their writings are hard to read and may not be entirely relevant now a days, and they use out-dated terminology making it hard to connect to present day thinking, and so on.

Some of the best more current philosophers do a great job of addressing the older ones. For instance, Nietzsche or Rorty on Plato. Or Kojeve on Hegel. Philosophy tends to feed upon itself. It's as Philosophy (personified) is taking her own advice: know thyself. Also, more recent philosophers are largely the product of less recent philosophers. I think of it as on ongoing conversation that is already centuries old about all that matters most to us.

Peter Singer is my favorite. His article "The Singer Solution to World Hunger" is amazing. Sure, there are obvious fallacies, but all in all, it is a pretty interesting article.

I read his Animal Liberation which I was pretty iffy about...I remember he drew some fire for arguing that babies within the first year of life are cognitively comparable to worms and, if their death would increase the overall happiness of the parents then we should allow infant euthanasia...the idea that he'd make an argument like that and yet still be all up in arms over animal rights rubbed me the wrong way. No problem with questionable philosophies but his just seemed bordering on self-sabotage.

For the OP, I know he's not alive anymore (died something like 5 or 10 years back), but Jaques Derrida was always a philosopher I quite enjoyed. Particularly what he has to say about other philosophers...his book "The Gift of Death" was particularly cool...

To be fair I'm pretty certain he was referencing mentally challenged or disabled in some other fashion children. It's been years (somewhere around a decade or more) since I heard anything about him, last I heard he was head of the board of Ethics at a university I think...only reason I'd heard of him in the first place was an ex of mine had one of his books about animal liberation or something of the sort.