I was never a huge Rorty fan (how can we be sure he’s dead?), but he was undoubtedly one of the giants in the field. With the passing of Rawls, Strawson, Quine, Nozick, Kuhn and Derrida (love ‘em or hate ‘em, and boy do I have ill feelings towards at least two on that list), philosophy has been shorn of a lot of its giants over the past few years.

Who is left that is universally regarded as a great in philosophy? John Searle of Chinese Room fame may be the last of the Oxford greats. Habermas? Hilary Putnam? Thomas Nagel?

If influence is important, then a friend suggests Katherine Mackinnon, for her work on the individual’s relationship to the State. Despite her “barking madness,” he suspects she has been exceptionally influential in political philosophy. He may be right.