Richard Rorty
Talk of sensations might one day disappear, replaced by the language of neuroscience.
Life
Richard Rorty (1931-2007), born in New York, taught at Princeton, the University of Virginia and Stanford. In Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979) he attacked the idea that the mind mirrors reality and promoted a pragmatism without ultimate foundations. He held that truth is not correspondence with the world and that philosophy should keep the conversation going rather than seek certainties.
Main works
Criticises the idea that knowledge represents reality.
Essays defending an anti-foundationalist pragmatism.
Argues that our vocabularies are contingent and that solidarity is made.
In his own words
« The world does not speak. Only we do. »
« There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe is a non-believer who thinks religion should stay private and not stop public conversation.
Rorty, Religion as a Conversation-stopper (1994)
No vocabulary or belief is final or grounded in reality itself; all are contingent tools.
Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
He defended eliminative materialism: talk of sensations might be replaced by the language of neuroscience.
Rorty, Mind-Body Identity, Privacy, and Categories (1965)
There is no moral truth waiting to be found; we build moral progress by widening our sense of 'us'.
Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
Nothing gives life a meaning in advance; each person creates a self-description and a purpose.
Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)