Rortyian Hope

• Authors: Mark Sanders
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This is a paper about Richard Rorty's notion of hope, and the role that it plays in breaking down Rorty's public/private distinction, and connecting philosophy to politics. The argument that philosophy can be engaged in and with the social-political world is one that is coherent with Rorty's position if philosophy is understood as striving towards its goals with a sense of contextualism and fallibilism. Placing Rorty within the tradition of the classic pragmatists, James and Dewey, I will argue that pluralism can and should serve as a contextual foundation for liberalism. Through an examination and analysis of Rorty's liberal ironist and anti-foundationalism, I will explore how Rortyian hope can be understood as socially and politically transformative, transforming our conception of knowledge from one based on certainty to one based on fallibility.

Keywords

EN

Rorty; hope; pragmatism

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 52-59

Dates

published

2009-06-01

online

2009-03-21

Contributors

author

Mark Sanders

• Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10023-009-0020-1