Richard Rorty Professions : Philosopher Born : October 4, 1931 Died : June 8, 2007 Browse All Authors Top 46 quotes by Richard Rorty Freedom is the recognition of contingency. Richard Rorty contingency recognition If I had to lay bets, my bet would be that everything is going to go to hell, but, you know, what else have we got except hope? Richard Rorty hell would-be knows Complaints about the social irresponsibility of the intellectual typically concern the intellectual's tendency to marginalize herself, to move out from one community by interior identification of herself with some other community - for example, another country or historical period... It is not clear that those who thus marginalize themselves can be criticized for social irresponsibility. One cannot be irresponsible toward a community of which one does not think of oneself as a member. Otherwise runaway slaves and tunnelers under the Berlin Wall would be irresponsible. Richard Rorty wall country moving Truth [is] what is better for us to believe. Richard Rorty truth-is believe I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends. Richard Rorty heidegger able wish My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence. Richard Rorty transcendence ambition belief As long as we try to project from the relative and conditioned to the absolute and unconditioned, we shall keep the pendulum swinging between dogmatism and skepticism. The only way to stop this increasingly tiresome pendulum swing is to change our conception of what philosophy is good for. But that is not something which will be accomplished by a few neat arguments. It will be accomplished, if it ever is, by a long, slow process of cultural change - that is to say, of change in common sense, changes in the intuitions available for being pumped up by philosophical arguments. Richard Rorty philosophical swings philosophy Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister - corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used. Richard Rorty foundation intellectual civilization Had there been no Plato, the Christians would have had a harder time selling the idea that all God really wanted from us was fraternal love. Richard Rorty plato christian ideas Academic disciplines are subject to being overtaken by attacks of "knowingness"- a state of mind and soul that prevents shudders of awe and makes one immune to enthusiasm. Richard Rorty discipline intellectual soul If the body had been easier to understand, nobody would have thought that we had a mind. Richard Rorty easier body mind The difference between people and ideas is... only superficial. Richard Rorty differences people ideas We are equal inhabitants of a paradise of individuals in which everybody has the right to be understood. Richard Rorty paradise individual essence Every government, left or right, always engages in moral crusades. What else are they supposed to do? Especially when they make war; any war has to be a moral crusade. Richard Rorty moral government war I think of an intellectual as just being bookish, being interested in history books, utopian ideas, that kind of thing. Richard Rorty book ideas thinking Open-mindedness should not be fostered because, as Scripture teaches, Truth is great and will prevail, nor because, as Milton suggests, Truth will always win in a free and open encounter. It should be fostered for its own sake. Richard Rorty encounters sake winning I illustrate with a quotation from the atheist philosopher Richard Rorty, who died recently and is, I suspect, now having a lengthy conversation with his maker. Rorty argued that secular professors ought “to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own. Richard Rorty atheist college religious [Walt] Whitman and [humanist educator John] Dewey tried to substitute hope for knowledge. They wanted to put shared utopian dreams - dreams of an ideally decent and civilized society - in the place of knowledge of God's Will, Moral Law, the Laws of History, or the Facts of Science.... As long as we have a functioning political left, we still have a chance to achieve our country, to make it the country of Whitman's and Dewey's dreams. Richard Rorty law dream country To abjure the notion of the truly human is to abjure the attempt to divinize the self as a replacement for a divinized world. Richard Rorty replacements self world Truthfulness under oath is, by now, a matter of our civic religion, our relation to our fellow citizens rather than our relation to a nonhuman power. Richard Rorty citizens matter relation Similar Authors F. H. Bradley philosopher Irving Copi philosopher Ivan Ilyin philosopher Ivan Illich philosopher Bion of Borysthenes philosopher Bonaventure philosopher All Authors
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