Contingency, Irony, and SolidarityIn 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. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - brleach - LibraryThingUltimately, I don't find Rorty's attempt to redescribe the world in new language to be terribly compelling. Since he provides no criteria for choosing between languages, it would seem that his failure ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Carl_Hayes - LibraryThingObama's win inspired me to reread this book of pragmatic ideas, a favorite. Too bad Rorty didn't live to see his victory, not simply because our next President is an African American (which itself ... Read full review
Contents
The contingency of language | 3 |
The contingency of selfhood | 23 |
The contingency of a liberal community | 44 |
Private irony and liberal hope | 73 |
Selfcreation and affiliation Proust Nietzsche and Heidegger | 96 |
From ironist theory to private allusions Derrida | 122 |
The barber of Kasbeam Nabokov on cruelty | 141 |
The last intellectual in Europe Orwell on cruelty | 169 |
Solidarity | 189 |
| 199 | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic attempt autonomy become beliefs and desires bildungsroman Bleak House blind impress called CEJL Chapter claim common contingency contrast create cruelty culture Dasein Davidson Derrida describe Dickens distinction elementary words Enlightenment example fact fantasies Fido final vocabulary Foucault Freud Habermas Hegel Heidegger Heidegger's hope human solidarity Humbert humiliation idea idiosyncratic imagine intellectual ironist theorist John Shade Kant Kinbote kind language game liberal ironist liberal society Lolita matter means metaphors metaphysician metaphysics moral Nabokov Nietzsche Nietzsche's Nietzschean nominalist notion novel O'Brien one's oneself Orwell Orwell's pain Pale Fire particular passage person philosophers Plato poem poet poetry political possible Proust question rational reality realize reason redescribing redescription self-creation sense Shade shared simply social Socrates sort speak suggestion theory thing thought tion torture traditional truth University Press Vladimir Nabokov Wilfrid Sellars Winston writing
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity The Clark lectures The Northcliffe lectures |
| Author | Richard Rorty |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1989 |
| ISBN | 0521367816, 9780521367813 |
| Length | 201 pages |
| Subjects | › Philosophy / General Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |