Two Dogmas of Rorty's Pragmatism
Here I discuss two controversial distinctions that have an essential role in Rorty's pragmatism: the distinction between descriptive and normative discourses, and the distinction between the private and public dimensions of human life. Neither of them is Rorty's novelty, but the way he stresses them is unique. The first is a central presupposition of his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), while the other is the argumentative base of Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989). I will argue that the distinctions provide metaphilosophical tools for Rorty's pragmatism, and that our stance towards the latter depends on the plausibility of them.
References
Conway, D. Irony, State and Utopia. In M. Festenstein, S. Thompson (Eds.). Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Davidson, D. Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.Search in Google Scholar
Festenstein, M., Thompson, S. (Eds.). Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Haack, S. Vulgar Pragmatism: An Unedifying Prospect. In H. Saatkamp (Ed.). Rorty and Pragmatism. Nashville and London: Vanderbilt University Press, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Habermas, J. The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Transl. T. McCarthy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1984.Search in Google Scholar
Horton, K. Irony and Commitment: An Irreconcilable Dualism of Modernity. In M. Festenstein, S. Thompson (Eds.). Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
McDowell. J. Mind and World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.Search in Google Scholar
Pihlström, S. Naturalizing the Transcendental: a Pragmatic View. Amherst (NY): Prometheus/Humanity Books, 2003.Search in Google Scholar
Putnam, H. Realism and Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.Search in Google Scholar
Quine, V.O. From A Logical Point of View, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953.Search in Google Scholar
Ramberg, B.T. Richard Rorty. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rorty/>, 2007. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rorty/Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Objectivity, Relativity, and Truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Truth and Progress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Philosophy and Social Hope. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Responses. In M. Festenstein, S. Thompson (Eds.). Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Rorty, R. Philosophy as Cultural Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Sellars, W. Science, Perception and Reality. New York: The Humanities Press, 1963.Search in Google Scholar
Shusterman, R. Reason and Aesthetics between Modernity and Postmodernity: Habermas and Rorty. In M. Festenstein, S. Thompson (Eds.). Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Tartaglia, J. Rorty and the Mirror of Nature. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Vuorio, T. Making Rorty Explicit: The Argument of ‘Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature’. Tampere: University of Tampere Press, to be published in 2009.Search in Google Scholar
© 2009 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
This content is open access.
