Abstract
Richard Rorty was inspired by Romanticism’s elevation of the imagination over the power of reason and appropriated its resulting conception of creativity to bolster his own notion of solidarity. In this chapter, however, we examine some puzzling aspects of his other appeals to the imaginative capacities of human beings. In the first place, we look at how those appeals square with his holism and his naturalism, and find interesting tensions there. Secondly, we highlight some questionable aspects of Rorty’s portrayal of the role of contingency and geniuses in cultural change. The chapter concludes with some brief observations regarding how Rorty’s views on the imagination influence his approach to both politics and morality.
I would like to thank Martin Mueller for astute comments on an earlier version of this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
The most concerted attempt up to date to outline what might be viewed as Rorty’s “philosophical scheme of things” can be found in Robert Kraut 2004. Interestingly, however, this paper does not touch on the role of the imagination.
- 2.
Note Rorty 2010, p. 478: “My tastes in philosophy are for narrative and therapy rather than for system building.”
- 3.
Although he doesn’t make this explicit, it seems likely that when Rorty uses the phrase “world picture” he has Martin Heidegger’s “The Age of World Picture” in mind; reprinted in Heidegger 1977.
- 4.
Given more time, we might also develop a line of criticism based on the conflation of “accidental” and “contingent.” By widening the socioeconomic focus, it is possible to make the process of acceptance of a radically new work of art or theory look contingent, but it is a big leap to then claim that it is accidental. I am reminded of the lady who wrote to inform me that during a lecture she had accidentally translated the whole of quantum theory into plain English. There is a further question as to whether the recognition of genius is often accidental. It seems to me that the cases where great works of art or scientific theories are at first derided are special cases – that is why they stand out and we remember them.
- 5.
We stick with artistic examples, but the same point can be made about scientific theories (e.g., Einstein’s Theory of Relativity).
- 6.
Harold Bloom makes this point in Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (Bloom 2002). Bloom was admired by Rorty, and influenced his approach to literature. A more extensive treatment here would explore the extent of Bloom’s impact on Rorty’s account of the imagination (e.g., Did Bloom’s passionate defense of the notion of “genius” have an impact on Rorty’s own decision to use the term so often?).
- 7.
Here I am alluding to socio-political critiques that purport to strenuously avoid reductionism but end up there anyway by the back door of obscure and excessively abstract jargon.
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Recommended Literature for Further Reading
Blanning, Tim. 2010. The romantic revolution. London: Phoenix. In this book, the author explains the historical background to Romanticism’s ‘cult of genius’ and its consequent celebration of the powers of the imagination.
Goodman, Russell B. 1990. American philosophy and the romantic tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hollinger, Robert and Depew, David. Eds. 1995. Pragmatism: From progressivism to postmodernism. Westport: Praeger Publishers. The collection offers discussions of Rorty’s views and their relationship to postmodernism which are still instructive even though they were written nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Nevo, Isaac. 1995. Richard Rorty’s romantic pragmatism. In Pragmatism: From progressivism to postmodernism. Eds. R. Hollinger and D. Depew, 284–297. Westport: Praeger Publishers. This is providing an insightful critical examination of Rorty’s attempts to reconcile pragmatism with a Heideggerian version of Romanticism.
Schulenberg, Ulf. 2015. Romanticism and pragmatism: Richard Rorty and the idea of a poeticized culture. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Provides an insightful and nuanced account of the role that Romanticism plays in what the author calls “the renaissance of pragmatism initiated by Richard Rorty”.
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Malachowski, A. (2023). Imagination over Reason: Rorty’s Romance with Contingency. In: Müller, M. (eds) Handbuch Richard Rorty. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16253-5_48
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