Rorty, religion and the public–private distinction

Philosophy and Social Criticism 38 (8):861-878 (2012)
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Abstract

This article explores the question of the role of religion in the public square through the lens of Richard Rorty’s more general public–private distinction. When we note his various positions over the years on the role of religion in the public square we observe a shift that yields a more favorable public role for religion so long as it limits itself to social action and refrains from making knowledge-claims that serve as tools of the powerful. But if, according to Rorty, religion per se is no longer the problem, then what becomes of his efforts to endorse a more general public–private distinction? The argument set forth assesses the inadequacies and limitations of Rorty’s assumptions about the public–private split and suggests another way of framing the issue that will prove productive in debates concerning the role of religion in the public square.

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Author's Profile

Lauren Barthold
Emerson College

Citations of this work

Redeeming Rorty’s Private–Public Distinction.Tracy Llanera - 2016 - Contemporary Pragmatism 13 (3):319-340.
Rethinking nihilism: Rorty vs Taylor, Dreyfus and Kelly.Tracy Llanera - 2016 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 42 (9):937-950.
Rethinking nihilism.Tracy Llanera - 2016 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 42 (9):937-950.

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References found in this work

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.Richard Rorty - 1979 - Princeton University Press.
Objectivity, relativism, and truth.Richard Rorty - 1991 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.Richard Rorty - 1989 - The Personalist Forum 5 (2):149-152.
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.Richard Rorty - 1979 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 170 (4):463-464.
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.Richard Rorty - 1979 - Philosophy 56 (217):427-429.

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