This book, written in the late 1970's, is Richard Rorty's attempt to discuss his philosophy about perception and reality. The main theme of this work is that humans often confuse their perceptions about reality with reality itself, but because our perspectives are subjective, we should recognize where language disagrees with reality.
As far as its philosophy is concerned, people have noticed that Rorty's work seems to draw from thinkers like Wittgenstein, and perhaps even from the logical positivists like Ayer. This work is primarily analytical philosophy, which means that its ideas are explained in technical, mathematic arguments. The other kind of philosophy is continental philosophy, which is more open to interpretation.
Interestingly, Rorty released another book after this book which is more continental in its philosophy, called, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Perhaps the most interesting fact of all is that Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature had greatest critical and commercial success outside of analytical philosophy.
