Richard Rorty

[phillipmcreynolds]

You can see the whole thing at vimeo.com channels americanphilosopher

[hauntmeinharmony]

Richard Rorty sucks.

[MrCouchTuber]

Richard Rorty recently died with clips from Rorty himself?

[Dylvente]

@MrCouchTuber It's a disease, "clips from Rorty himself," or an error in sentence construction. :-)

[TheOnlyFriday]

Wow. For a clip that's really just a bunch of guys talking to camera, this really kind of holds the interest.

[soursourapples]

haha

[DirzoRasec]

Although the comment below by "dogx15" got two thumbs down he is partially correct. He is alluding to books of architecture where the word postmodern was used. These books came about in the 60's & 70's.

The word "postmodern" first appeared around the 1870's. However, in the way its used to day in relation to philosophy it from the late 60's.

[mencius121]

Rorty claimed to right to do everything Nazi propagandists did in order to destroy "religious fundamentalism". This is legitimate because unlike the nazis, he is "good". His proof of goodness? Some vague Rousseauian conception about the general will which he says he serves (trust him on this). Substitute "will of the proletariat," or "Fuhererprinzep" for general will and you can see where this goes. Why is it that "democracy" as envisioned by academics always ends with everybody fucked?

[manwaring]

So, you've equated Rorty's views with Rousseau and then Rousseu's views with Marx and then Marx's views with Hitler and then you expect us to you for something other than an uneducated lunatic?

Sir, books are good for you.

[uglybunny]

Lol, I had to look back at the rest of the convo after reading this comment.

[ygan72]

Marx lebte,lebt und wird leben, solange es auf dieser Erde Fabriken, Werke und Lohnarbeiter gibt !

( Grüße aus Budapest )

[code933k]

I am quite sad knowing Rorty´s dead. I liked his recent stances on American politics which I think was the best way to see the working wheel of his own constructions.

[isforbliss]

Nice ending. Says what should be said: most philosophy garbage backward anal-i-sing intellectuals in a circle jerk yammering about who's the least clear. Instead of working on creating they de-scribe themselves.

peace. plant seeds

[ursamajor1977]

Well, a reason for this is that some have come to the conclusion that "philosophy" is not productive, due to its nature. And then the only thing that a philosopher can, and must, do is to explain this fact; this solely pedagogical activity would then be the only possible philosophical activity. "Tragic", some would say, but true according to these people (who are right?).

[jupiterostselo]

@ursamajor1977:

...V.important comment. I think that philosophy's main task in the 21st century is to explain why it does what it does, and further why it even still EXISTS in the context of 'late capitalism'. As you say, this is primarily a problem for educators and other interested parties - not academia. Rorty makes the case that this is a matter of moving beyond the gridlock of essentialism and working to make society more 'rich and interesting than in the past'. Amen to that.

[Savorist]

Where are the women in this film? Where are the minorities in this film? And these are the people who make universal claims about the world and humanity? People like Hilary Putnam? Wow, thank goodness for art.

[asburytheo]

Not really an argument there, Savorist. Ad Hominem, though.

It does not affect the trajectory or implications of the Rorty and the views presented here, but it is something to think about. There are certainly other diverging and even similar views proposed by feminists, post-colonials, and other hermeneutics as well as people from non-European and non-North American backgrounds. And they are more than worth hearing and analyzing.

Yet, to say that their conversation is irrelevant...

[asburytheo]

is not only a bad argument, but it is contradictory to your implication that other views need to be heard (egalitarian).

Oh, and philosophy is art.

[Savorist]

Your concern for logic and validation is exactly my point, asburytheo. In a (post) postmodern society, what place does logic really have? Ad hominem may be the only way - the only way to arouse change as Rorty claims the priority to be, in place of "truth" seeking.

If philosophy is art (which I'm glad you acknowledged in the midst of your ignorance), then the artist, with his/her intentionality, can trump logic by simply saying so.

[asburytheo]

Gross misunderstanding of post-modernity (which began in the academy ala philosophical reasoning).

However, I will be the first to admit that logic is not the be-all and end-all...

but you used an If-Then statement, called a Conditional to demonstrate why we don't need logic anymore.

Give Rorty a spin again. After all, he is considered one of the greatest post-modern writers/thinkers of the 20th and 21st century.

[Savorist]

You nitpick, my dear boy. Obviously, in order to express an idea, there will be hypocrisy. It's visible in every single philosophy to date. The ways in which philosophers prove their points may go against the overall theme of what they're saying. That's a given, and academia has grown to look beyond that, and left that kind of argumentation to dilettantes such as yourself.

Just for my entertainment, what IS postmodernity, asburytheo. In your own words, if you will.

[ChristmasTim]

if you went to "asbury theological"...then you are a prick. i call that an ad homynem arguement. listen, without the staunch real truths given to us during modernity, u wouldn't know your head from your asshole...jerk.

[dogx15]

It started sometime in the 70's with a book that had nothing to do with philosophy. I believe its were the word "postmodern" was first used.

[allthatisthecase]

How are the proper "places" of the logics to be determined?

I did mean logics, as there are many types (such as classical, paraconsistent, relavent for example), several methods of deduction (such as natural deduction and tree-type deduction), and many types of semantic interpretation.

Do you just gloss over the rich history and practice of the logical tradition and its immense influence upon 20th and 21st century EVERYTHING?

I'd wager that your Post PMists have a set of rules they follow.

[allthatisthecase]

(meant to be a response to savorist)

[joshsowords]

regardless how one feels about Rorty, contingency, irony and solidarity is one of the most enjoyable reads in the history of philosophy

[dobiastiehl]

totally agree.

[DanaGarrett]

While I can see Analytic School philosophers agreeing that Heidegger qualifies for the first sense of "important" and "influential," but in my experience Analytical philosophers didn't think Heidegger qualified for the latter sense of term and only a narrow few would disqualify Dewey as worthy of the second sense of the terms.

But I have a deeper perplexity about this argument: Why is Rorty's proposed canonization of Dewey even important?

[DanaGarrett]

[1] The commenters on the film seem to conflate two senses of the terms "important" and "influential." The first sense is "So & so is an important/influential philosopher because he started or best exemplified some philosophical movement." The other sense is "So & so is an important/influential philosopher because he deserves the esteem of philosophers."

[kingofcarrotflowers1]

Higgeldy Piggeldy Richard Prof. Rorty

Thought he'd be naughty by trying to say,

'Reason, Truth, History are phantasmagoria,

But... better keep talking to draw in the pay'

[pariah23]

the world doesn't even realize yet how great a loss the death of Rorty is

[GrowthSpiral]

i agree..

[mandispangler]

a great hero of philosophical disobedience is now absent from view. it is so rare in the academia of philosophy to find such a beautifully fearless voice. he will be desperately missed by those of us who refuse to bow down to analytical fundamentalism. grief is still strongly felt.

[DanLackey]

I met Rorty in 1993, at a conference in Tulsa. His 'rhetorical presence' in this video has a kind of well-fed Bloom-at-Yale gravitas, which is appealing but completely different from the man I recall from the Tulsa conference, the obsessive self-effacing ordinary-Joe who at table extended his hand to this secret admirer, saying simply, 'Dick Rorty.' If literary and cultural criticism ever re-achieves its Trilling-and-Wilson-Goodman glory, Rorty will justly be given a great deal of the credit.

[fatfrankblack]

the funniest, most wonderfully clear and lucid, engaging writer on fields which are so often buried under waste of everyone's time pretentious, name dropping twaddle.

nnnoooo!!!

we need more of him; not less.

[mrobot631]

normalize the audio!!

[rubbersoul21ok]

I was very surprised when I first discovered a few weeks ago that Richard Rorty had died. And to think that I had intended to apply to Stanford to have him as my teacher!

[onamor45]

rorty is a friend of mine, though in books. I love him and hope i can make his thoughts better. My paper on him is about to be done yet he too is done...

[Mukaiji]

I just realized that Rorty passed... This video makes me want to go re-read everything.

[krewej]

A great loss for philosophy both analytic and continental.One of the most fundamental thinkers ever.