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Title: Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0-521-36781-6 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 24 February, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.65 (17 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: a new dogmatism
Comment: When i first read this book, Rorty had me hooked on his program. Unfortunately, after some reflection, it became clear to me that there is little behind Rorty's arguments (and they ARE "arguments" no matter how much he wants to deny this) other than appeals to popular consensus. I would have given this book 1 star but it is admittedly well written and isn't nearly as difficult as some other "postmodern" philosophers. However, the content is lacking. To begin, Rorty contends that there is no absoulute "truth" and supports a view of strong linguistic/ cultural relativism. Although i don't think that anybody is going to contend, on the other hand, that we can gain some ultimate and complete worldview (Hegel), to deny this does not require that we then make dogmatic claims such as "we can never know if our language corresponds to reality" or simply "we cannot know reality" (both of these are also incoherant claims. for example, in saying that language doesnt correspond to reality is to speak of the reality of language). There's a whole lot of middle ground between absolute knowledge and no knowledge-- middle ground that Rorty ignores. Furthermore, just as Rorty critisizes all of those great "metaphysicians" for "worshipping" Spirit, Being, Reason, etc. , a case can be made that Rorty is worshipping language and culture. It isn't outrageous to say that Rorty thinks that, on a "public" level, we should consider books to be more important than our individual concerns and fantasies. Rorty makes a lot of bold claims, such as saying that all discourse amounts to language games and metaphor, however, never backs up these claims. Rather, he leaves that job to a certain plague of political correctness. For example, it is really in tune with "equal rights" to say that even science is purely metaphorical-- sure, all uses of language are the same, just like blacks are equal to whites, women to men, etc. This sounds nice, but without any support it becomes purely dogmatic (of course, there is plenty to support that, at a fundamental level, blacks are equal to whites, etc. However, the same cannot be said of the language of science versus the language of literature.) And if we are going to rely on dogmatism, why not christianity? In conjuction with this, just as Rorty denies "self-evident" truths, he has to appeal to intuition repeatedly. For example, when he says "languages are made, not found". how does he know this? Ah, intuition...Finally, and perhaps most importantly, are the problems with Rorty's social vision. Whereas thinkers like Deleuze and Guattari seek, in many ways, to eliminate the distinction between the private and the public, Rorty seeks to make this distinction clear. To me this sounds "highly Oedipal"-- keep your fantasies to your self, etc. Rorty condemns thinkers of "creation" such as Nietzsche and Deleuze (although Rorty doesnt explicitely discuss the latter) to the private realm. Rorty wants to for us to talk about books and not ourselves. Despite his supposed deep concern with social problems, one gets the impression that Rorty had never left his comfortable desks and comfortable upper-middle class white male lifestyle and ventured (or even considered intellectually) into an inner city, etc. -- places of REAL social distress. When looked at from this perspective, Rorty's concerns seem whiny and mundane -- as if he is sketching an ethics for the intellectual community (and even an idealized one, at that) -- not a real commmunity with real distresses, concerns, and conflicts.
Rating: 5
Summary: There's nothing wrong with pragmatism....
Comment: American intellectuals who are politically liberal face a problem. They are the happy inheritors of a tradition built around Judeo-Christian values (such as concern for the poor) and Enlightenment social institutions (representative democracy, free market economy, etc.) but, having read their Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud, they can no longer give credence to the metaphysical notions (God's Will and Universal Reason) which have historically grounded our admirable social practices. In this book Richard Rorty, like John Dewey before him, argues that the ONLY justification a political institution or social policy requires is that it WORKS. Look not to lofty origins, but to concrete results. Of course, American intellectuals who are politically liberal tend to value programs whose results promote human growth, personal liberty, and social solidarity. But their enthusiasm for such goods will be tinged with irony, since they realize that there's nothing universal about these preferences (had Socrates, Jesus, and Jefferson died in their cradles our list of desirable ends might look very different-- Rorty calls this contingency). This book concludes with the suggestion that in a liberal utopia the bourgeois distinction between the public and the private would be a strong one, thus freeing individuals to pursue their own private perfection, a project Rorty feels is sometimes threatened from extremists on the Left and on the Right. This is a wonderful book, but potential readers who are ignorant of 20th century intellectual history will probably find the opening chapters pretty rough going.
Rating: 3
Summary: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity
Comment: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity is great book if you are in neopragmatism, linguistic relativity or other neo-something. But if you think more in depth you will see that Rorty's basic statement that new vocabulary that replace old vocabulary is still recognized as entity "vocabulary". Without broader idea that language "Is" that vocabulary changing concept wouldn't be possible. Rorty is definitively interesting philosopher as philosopher which clearly shows 20th century spirit, but to be one's final station is as dangerous as to hold Nietzsche as definitive philosopher.
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Title: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0691020167 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1981 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Philosophy and Social Hope by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0140262881 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Volume 1 : Philosophical Papers (Philosophical Papers, Vol 1) by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0521358779 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 30 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $29.00 |
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Title: Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays, 1972-1980 by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0816610649 Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1982 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Essays on Heidegger and Others: Volume 2 : Philosophical Papers (Rorty, Richard. Philosophical Papers, V. 2.) by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0521358787 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 22 February, 1991 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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