ABSTRACT
The article reconstructs the disputes in the APA that led, by the end of the 1970s, to the so-called Pluralist Rebellion. One of the central characters of this event was philosopher Richard Rorty (1933-2008), who had a crucial role as an intellectual framer of the disciplinary discontent which erupted in the 1979 meeting of the association. The article concludes by showing how the episode might be interpreted as an exemplary case of processes of intellectual change that involve institutional crisis and the emergence of scientific/intellectual movements.
KEYWORDS:
American contemporary philosophy; Richard Rorty; intellectual movements; intellectual change; sociology of philosophy