Richard Rorty

I had a near miss with Rorty, since I was supposed to use his text (as follows) to write my honors dissertation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency,_Irony,_and_Solidarity

Looking back, it was a good thing I withdrew at the time, since I would not have understood the argument he was making, nor the cultural context of the argument. Also, it would have been extremely *ironic* if I had to be in a position to give USA liberals “hope”, when my right-wing society had been demolished and I had no hope of my own.

Rorty is not a very good philosopher in my opinion, making the typical move of Postmodernists in combining Nietzsche with Christianity. Nietzsche was inimical to Christianity. The USA philosopher that makes the most sense to me is Quine.

Clearly, though, Rorty understood his USA liberal community’s desire for “hope”. You’ve got to keep hope alive by not making devastating critiques of authoritarianism like those made by Orwell. Barack Obama sought election on that ticket. Hope.

The whole idea is very American, self-indulgent and Christian in its idealization of “community” and “hope”.