Rorty's "Liberal Ironism": Contingency, Irony & Solidarity (1)

Richard Rorty, one of the iconic 20th century postmodernist philosophers, initially made his name by arguing against the Platonic conception of pre-existent, observer-independent ideals. In such works as his famed 1979 opus Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature , he meticulously dissected the notion that inner mental representations can ever decisively capture ("mirror") objective reality, or that they are even needed for knowledge. Instead, Rorty views all knowledge as rooted in language and thus, in a word, contingent.

But at the same time, Rorty was deeply committed to the ideals of a liberal and progressive society. In Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (CIS), published 10 years later, he attempts to resolve this seeming contradiction, presenting a defense of liberalism based not in eternal truths about humanity, but the much more flexible language of narrative, empathy, and artistic vision. In CIS he therefore abandons absolute principles and frameworks except in a winking, "ironic" way. While admitting that the conflicting goals of personal expression and collective organization can never fit into one system, Rorty argues that the figure of the "liberal ironist"--personified in a surprising range of thinkers and artists--nevertheless can steadily widen the circle of human solidarity, leading to a world that is ever less cruel.

Let's see if all this ironism is worth taking seriously! A PDF of CIS is available at (https://sites.pitt.edu/~rbrandom/Courses/2024%20Philosophy%20of%20Language/Texts/Rorty%20Contingency,%20Irony,%20and%20Solidarity.pdf). We'll start with just the introduction and chapter 1, p. xiii-22 in the linked edition. Best of luck--