Richard Rorty talks about his childhood

[James3940]

I sympathise with Rorty's childhood experiences and the resulting desire to have domination over the people who dominate you. He is an inspiration for people suffering from resentful fantasies because he broke the cycle and recreated himself as someone opposed to domination and cruelty and for freedom and compassion.

[demonfelix]

Interesting how greatness is born...

[Outthereandback]

HA! "..turning out to be the unacknowledged son of the King, that sort of thing.."

[PavelSTL]

it takes a very intellectually mature and secure person to be honest like that.

[carlo88moe]

@PavelSTL he can afford to be, he was already considered by then the greatest living philosopher....he could afford to say 'fuck you' to any validation of others

[ssarkis1]

this is awesome, thanks for posting

[TheFlanker35]

I had a similar childhood, but I became a rabid anti-communist.

[vladaro]

"shy, withdrawn, hoping to get away from school...being asocial...never made any friends...not easy in dealings with people...escaping others..scenes in nature, animals, birds..fantasies of power, control, omnipotence..acquiring intelectual power to get back at people..sense of mastery and control that you get out of philosophical ideas..need for domination"

sounds like somebody read nietzsche's zarathustra straight into his life but missed some very important lines like "life is a well of joy"

[ssarkis1]

@vladaro but i don't think rorty missed out on those lines, he definitely saw more beauty in life, even than he lets on here. at least from what i can tell. it's got to be hard growing up feeling like you don't have control, i think he's just being honest

[vladaro]

@ssarkis1 of course you're right, but my point was purely philosophical i guess, and could perhaps be put in this way as well, that it seems as if rorty read only one side of zarathustra, and completely missed the other side, which in fact is the side which is harder to read, which is what nietzsche himself or zarathustra constantly repeats, saying how gravity, weight, seriousness are hard (or even impossible) to oppose, especially for a philosopher...rorty is just a big mess in this interview

[toolesttool]

A need for domination? Oh yeah, a true philosopher...

[123gwf]

This guy really needs a hug.

[Quidtimeam]

Those school yard bullies are really going to get what was coming to them when Rorty's post-foundational utopia comes about.

[Seleteles]

@Quidtimeam The best revenge is a living a meaningful life.

That and a beaker of acid to the face, but he wasn't a science nerd, looks like.

[pmzavala]

Really insightful. By the way, the New York Times just created a philosophy blog with Simon Critchley from the New School as the moderator; in the first post he describes a philosopher. But I think Rorty's essay "The Philosopher as Expert" is much more on target and seems more interesting. It is reprinted in the thirtieth-anniversary edition of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.

[santiago023]

what an incredible sincere guy

[autumnlingo]

It's amazing how exceptionally unpretentious he is...

I mean, it's like, could such 'straight-talking' exist anywhere outside the U.S.?

Yet, at the same time, one craves a little bit of a mask... why do we love the masks we see others fashion for themselves?

Anyway, I really related to that statement about not being able to make small talk at parties =P

@brokennarcissist And that is exactly why I ended up switching my major from Philosophy to English at Berkeley =P

[brokennarcissist]

Lulz, I went back school this year to finish my philosophy degree but taking strictly english courses. Time better spent carving many masks rather than attempting to shatter others.

[brokennarcissist]

I like how he ends this interview, he basically sums up the experience of most upper year philosophy courses were a bunch a of vain disgruntled students engage in a sort of 'I know best' conversational bloodsport. Well, there and youtube, I suppose.

[hauntmeinharmony]

This is the most dark insight into a person I have seen, in over a week.

[columbusclipper]

I love how he seems reluctant to answer questions and then ends up answering the questoins so fully. He's aloof and engaged at the same time.

[renaldo999]

Rorty is Dick Cheney's doppelganger (the good other half, of course).

[sosiopat]

Not even similar.

[bananaslugpopsicle]

Whoa... What if some alchemist DIVIDED one person into Richard Rorty and Dick Cheney!

[truthtrekker]

he went to yale i think that says it all

[Slavesrevolt]

Interesting insights into his psyche. I understand his point about not being able to come up with small talk. I just don't have the stomach nor the time for trivial BS. Life is too short to waste it talking about shoe color or complaining about the boss of a job you hate.

I seek knowledge and truth.

[samshipstone]

Irony in action.

[rootberg]

This is one of the most interesting clips I've seen. Really intimate and real. Wonderful.

[qtronman]

So he more or less admits that he was a social loser in childhood and therefore he tried to compensate for his feelings of inadequacy by lusting after power through intellectual pursuits. His vacuous philosophic output reflects the unfulfilled need to dominate the world he hated.

[Kaaru]

Nice ad hominem! I feel truly privileged to have seen the intellectual powers of a superior rational individual in action. It's also good to see that you are not so lacking in compassion and understanding that you won't jump in to take advantage of a person when he is at his most vulnerable. Glad to see all those ethics lessons paid off, qtronman!

[qtronman]

Taking advantage of? What the hell are you talking about? The man clearly said he is a power luster.

[qtronman]

As for "compassion and understanding," I wish far worse on Rorty than what I stated above.

[nine9s]

Fantasies of power and control? O.O

And looking to get back at people via intellectual power? And what he liked about his philosophy courses was that it gave a sense of domination... Wow. Is there no better way to dominate people than to undercut their sense of reality?

[Kaaru]

Hi nine9s,

Note that Rorty is talking about his childhood and adolescence here. Fantasies of domination and control are surely common in children and young adults that are bullied and shuffled round from school to school.

[Kaaru]

Have you read Rorty's autobiographical essay 'Trotsky and the Wild Orchards' (in Philosophy and Social Hope)? There is much in it you will hate, but it would help you to put the above video into perspective and to see that Rorty's philosophical ideas were the result of genuine intellectual inquiry rather than an unbalanced character.

[neothomist1275]

Rorty almost certainly had Schizoid Personality Disorder...like me.

You're an Objectivist? Long live Canaanite trafficking! Let us hope Hebraic morality can keep concupiscence in check!

Why you folks don't refer to yourselves simply as Liberals (in the 19th century sense), I'll never understand.

[19562133]

please post more.

[creaturely]

Thanks for posting this! Please post more soon.

[groundless]

Thank you so much for posting this. Please post more!