Richard Rorty: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity / chapter 1

Richard Rorty: Contingency, Irony and Solidarity
Chapter 1 - The Contingency of Language
We're starting our discussion of chapter 1 tonight - here, Rorty argues that truth is an attribute of our linguistic practices rather than being something that we can find "out there" in the world. He suggests we should abandon the idea that either mind or world has an intrinsic nature waiting to be discovered.

There'll also be a whole other session on chapter 1 next week - recommended to read the whole chapter (20 pages) ahead of this session so that we can get the outline straight, then we'll recap & dig back into the gnarliest bits next week.

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.