Philosophy as an Instrument of Anti-Authoritarianism: On Ramberg’s Dialogical Metaphilosophy

Tartaglia, James

Abstract

This paper centres on an analysis of Ramberg’s early paper, “Rorty and the Instruments of Philosophy”, which I see as presenting Ramberg’s own original and explicitly Platonic dialogical metaphilosophy, one which I have been greatly influenced by. This metaphilosophy is designed to overcome the main blind spot Ramberg saw in Rorty, namely that he lacked a positive conception of philosophy, and hence provided no sustainable vision of how philosophy could serve pragmatic, anti-authoritarian ends. Despite Ramberg’s charitable attribution of this metaphilosophy to Rorty, I argue that this is not plausible, and that Ramberg should in fact further distance it from Rorty with commitments to philosophy having a subject-matter and to the reality of experience. I end by questioning Ramberg’s loyalty to naturalism, which I see as a tactic of materialism, and hence contrary to his pragmatic and anti-authoritarian aims.

Citation

Tartaglia, J. Philosophy as an Instrument of Anti-Authoritarianism: On Ramberg’s Dialogical Metaphilosophy. In Pragmatism, Metaphysics and Method: Essays for Bjørn Ramberg, edited by Yvonne Hütter-Almerigi and Robert Sinclair. Nordic Studies in Pragmatism

• Deposit Date: Jan 15, 2025
• Book Title: Pragmatism, Metaphysics and Method: Essays for Bjørn Ramberg, edited by Yvonne Hütter-Almerigi and Robert Sinclair
• Keywords: Bjørn Ramberg; Richard Rorty; Plato; Metaphilosophy; Anti-Philosophy; Metaphysics; Materialism; Naturalism; Consciousness; Artificial Intelligence; Virtual Reality
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1048175
• Contract Date: Jan 6, 2025