Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
 | |
| Author | Richard Rorty |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Philosophy of mind |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Publication date | 1979 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 401 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-691-02016-7 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 7040341 |
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (published in 1979) is a book by American philosopher Richard Rorty. It attempts to dissolve so-called philosophical problems instead of solving them by exposing them as pseudo-problems that only exist in the language-game of Analytic philosophy. In a pragmatist gesture, Rorty claims that philosophy must get past these pseudo-problems if it is to be productive.
The work was seen to be somewhat "controversial" upon its publication.[citation needed] It had the greatest success among students of analytic philosophy professors, who caused it to sell out within the first days of its publication; the students enjoyed it for being an alternative to the current analytic philosophy dogmas, in a period in which the analytic departments were tightening up on the dogmas even more.[1]
Contents
Rorty's central thesis is that philosophy has unduly relied on a representational theory of perception and a correspondence theory of truth, hoping our experience or language might mirror the way reality actually is. In this he continues a certain controversial Anglophone tradition, which builds upon the work of philosophers such as Quine, Sellars, and Davidson. Rorty opts out of the traditional objective/subjective dialogue in favor of a communal version of truth. For him, "true" is simply an honorific knowers bestow on claims, asserting them as what "we" want to say about a particular matter.
Rorty spends much of the book explaining how philosophical paradigm shifts and their associated philosophical "problems" can be considered the result of the new metaphors, vocabularies, and mistaken linguistic associations which are necessarily a part of those new paradigms.
Notes and references
- ^ Jacques Derrida (1994) Of the Humanities and Philosophical Disciplines Surfaces Vol. VI.108 (v.1.0A - 16/08/1996) - ISSN: 1188-2492 Later republished in Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy (2002).
External links
- Princeton University Press - Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
- LibraryThing - Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
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