Richard Rorty: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity / intro session

Richard Rorty: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity
Intro session
Our next long read is Rorty's 1989 book Contingency, Irony and Solidarity. Rorty argues that language, selfhood, our beliefs and truth itself are contingent upon historical contexts rather than discovered in the world. He advocates for the use of literature as much as philosophy in our work of self-creation. We'll use this first session as an intro to the themes of the book and to Rorty's project generally.

Who are we?
We're a reading group that welcomes all - young, old, completely new to philosophy or well versed, from keen students to those who've never darkened the door of a lecture room. We read both long & short texts, but you don't need to join at the very start of our longer reads - you can come along at any stage of the journey. Our conversations are lively, wide-ranging & respectful.

We usually head to the pub to continue the discussion after our meetings.