Rorty Mirror Of Nature
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What is it?
An attempt to extract the metaphilosophy from Rorty’s views. In particular those put forward in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Some tracing of Rorty’s impact on Mc Dowell may also be partaken of.
Where can it be found?
Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature Rorty and His Critics Stanford and Routledge Encyclopedia articles on Rorty
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Rorty’s Views
Metaphilosophy
Just what is it that philosophers are supposed to be doing these days? - philosophy should be hermeneutic, helping different areas of culture make contact - important task to clear away bad philosophy and bad ideas - conversationalism — abnormal discourse between standard discourse — facilitated by “new” philosophy (hermeneutics) - incommensurability of different discourses - can be viewed as just taking the analytic questioning of presuppositions further - Rorty’s account of philosophy as parasitic upon constructive efforts within traditional philosophy (and other discourses)
Epistemology
How should we think about having knowledge? - no foundations for knowledge — instead should adduce to other beliefs not requiring justification in the context one is operating within — no area is responsible for justifying things overall (which has been the conception of philosophy since Kant) — justifications always local - true is just the good in the realm of belief (cf James) - objectivity as intersubjectivity - knowledge does not represent (mirror) external world - lack of distinction between what is given and what is added by mind means that we can’t determine rational reconstruction of our knowledge - we understand knowledge when we understand the social justification of belief — hence no such thing as practice transcendence - rejection of subjective/objective distinction (what is made and what is found) - notions of truth, objectivity, etc. are dependent on contexts of application — hence when we attempt abstract out of these contexts we are left with nothing usable - truth is not a goal over above warrant or justification - no measure of approximation to truth other than increasing warrant
Language
What role does language play? - language does not represent reality - talk of beliefs, desires, etc. is just a useful way of talking - any vocabulary is optional - only semantic explanations are possible - vocabularies as tools — qualitative judgements about which can only be made within a particular context - no vocabularies are inescapable in principle - no ideal vocabulary
Traditional ( Post - Kantian) philosophy
What are the characteristics of the old, bad philosophy for Rorty? - modern epist tries to do this (mirror reality) as self-legitimation - power of theoretical empirical knowledge has made us seek its likeness everywhere - ~epistemology as the essence of philosophy - historicism
Science
Man, this science stuff is powerful intellectual mojo according to Rorty. How should we fit it in to our thinking? - authority of science is not an ontological claim - rejects naturalism that reduces (nomologically or conceptually) to terms of basic science
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Influence on Mc Dowell
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Criticisms
- makes existing predjudices impervious to criticism — response: rational criticism is possible but only post-revolution (cf Kuhn)
- relativist — response: rejects objective/subjective distinction necessary to be open to such a criticism
- how to account for constraint by world — cf Mc Dowell
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What do I think?
- I need to read “The Very Idea of Human Answerability to the World: John McDowell’s version of Empiricism” in Truth & Progress
- discourse stuff seems a little sketchy
- what value is there to foundational philosophy intradiscourse debate?
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