Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity - Softcover

Rorty, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521367816 ISBN 13: 9780521367813

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1989

Synopsis

In this book, major American philosopher Richard Rorty argues that thinkers such as Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein have enabled societies to see themselves as historical contingencies, rather than as expressions of underlying, ahistorical human nature, or as realizations of suprahistorical goals. This ironic perspective on the human condition is valuable but it cannot advance Liberalism's social and political goals. In fact, Rorty believes that it is literature and not philosophy that can do this, by promoting a genuine sense of human solidarity. Specifically, it is novelists such as Orwell and Nabokov who succeed in awakening us to the cruelty of particular social practices and individual attitudes. Thus, a truly liberal culture would fuse the private, individual freedom of the ironic, philosophical perspective with the public project of human solidarity as it is engendered through the insights and sensibilities of great writers. Rorty uses a wide range of references--from philosophy to social theory to literary criticism--to elucidate his beliefs.

About this title

Book Description

A major American philosopher asserts that it is literature, not philosophy, that promotes a genuine sense of human solidarity and ultimately, the advancement of liberal goals through the social consciousness it raises.

About the Author

Richard Rorty (1931 2007) was Professor of Comparative Literature and Philosophy at Stanford University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521367816
• ISBN 13: 9780521367813
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220