rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD
@rortyquotes.bsky.social
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Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007): pragmatist, ironist, and panrelationalist.
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Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 17h
Edifying philosophy falls into self-deception whenever it tries to do more than send the conversation off in new directions.
'Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature' p.378
#Rorty
#Pragmatism
#Conversation
That is why "existentialism"—and, more generally, edifying philosophy—can be only reactive, why it falls into self-deception whenever it tries to do more than send the conversation off in new directions. Such new directions may, perhaps, engender new normal discourses, new sciences, new philosophical research programs, and thus new objective truths. But they are not the point of edifying philosophy, only accidental byproducts. The point is always the same—to perform the social function which Dewey called "breaking the crust of convention," preventing man from deluding himself with the notion that he knows himself, or anything else, except under optional descriptions.
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 1d
Honesty has nothing to do with any controversy between Realists and non-Realists, both of whom pay it equal honor.
'Response to James Conant ' in 'Rorty and His Critics' p.347
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Truth
Pragmatists are often said not to recognize the political and moral importance of truth-telling. I do not think this charge is even remotely plausible. Truthfulness, in the relevant sense, is saying publicly what you believe, even when it is disadvantageous to do so. This is a moral virtue whose exercise is punished by totalitarian societies. This virtue has nothing to do with any controversy between Realists and non-Realists, both of whom pay it equal honor. ... It is no objection to Heal or to me to point out that lots of people use the word ""truth"" as the name of an end-in-itself, any more than it is a rebuke to the atheist to point out that the word "God" is so used. Atheists are not against loving certain things (for instance, Human Solidarity, Freedom, Democracy) with all one's heart and soul and mind, but they do not want an Omnipotent Creator and Law-Giver to be so loved. Pragmatists do not want Correspondence to the Intrinsic Nature of Reality to be so loved.
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Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 2d
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change.
'Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity' p.7
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#Rorty
#Vocabulary
I can sum up by redescribing what, in my view, the revolutionaries and poets of two centuries ago were getting at. What was glimpsed at the end of the eighteenth century was that anything could be made to look good or bad, important or unimportant, useful or useless, by being redescribed. What Hegel describes as the process of spirit gradually becoming self-conscious of its intrinsic nature is better described as the process of European linguistic practices changing at a faster and faster rate. The phenomenon Hegel describes is that of more people offering more radical redescriptions of more things than ever before, of young people going through half a dozen spiritual gestalt-switches before reaching adulthood. What the Romantics expressed as the claim that imagination, rather than reason, is the central human faculty was the realization that a talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change.
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 3d
The history of philosophy is the history of Gestalt-switches, not of the painstaking carrying-out of research programs.
'Truth and Progress' p.11
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#Pragmatism
#GestaltSwitch
We should remember that it is the initial Gestalt-switch, not the ensuing triumphalistic and professionalized busyness, that matters. The history of philosophy is the history of Gestalt-switches, not of the painstaking carrying-out of research programs. Such programs always trickle out into the sands eventually, but the Gestalt-switches may remain and make possible new such switches in the future. To give up on the idea that philosophy gets nearer to truth, and to interpret it as Dewey did, is to concede primacy to the imagination over the argumentative intellect, and to genius over professionalism.
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 4d
Anything can be made to look good or bad, important or unimportant, useful or useless, by being redescribed.
'Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity' p.7
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Redescription
I can sum up by redescribing what, in my view, the revolutionaries and poets of two centuries ago were getting at. What was glimpsed at the end of the eighteenth century was that anything could be made to look good or bad, important or unimportant, useful or useless, by being redescribed. What Hegel describes as the process of spirit gradually becoming self-conscious of its intrinsic nature is better described as the process of European linguistic practices changing at a faster and faster rate. The phenomenon Hegel describes is that of more people offering more radical redescriptions of more things than ever before, of young people going through half a dozen spiritual gestalt-switches before reaching adulthood. What the Romantics expressed as the claim that imagination, rather than reason, is the central human faculty was the realization that a talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change.
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 4d
Happy 94th Birthday to Richard McKay Rorty!
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#Pragmatism
#Philosophy
#Birthday
Photo of Richard McKay Rorty, dated 1933. From https://web.stanford.edu/~mvr2j/rr/images/02_tricycle.jpg . (Given that Rorty was born on October 4, 1931, in 1933 he would be between the ages of 1 yr 3 mo and 2 y 3mo. Thus the dating seems unlikely, as the child looks at least several years older.)
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 5d
On the eve of Richard McKay Rorty's 94th birthday*, announcing @rortyquotes: dedicated to tweeting a fresh #Rorty banger each and every day of the year—starting tomorrow!

* And the day, 79 years ago, that Rorty went off to the University of Chicago's Hutchins College.
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