Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Tartaglia, James

Abstract

This essay comprises an overview of the plot to Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, followed by a more detailed examination of the three parts of the book. It begins by showing the importance of metaphilosophy to Rorty's project, while explaining the significance of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature for both Rorty's philosophy as a whole, and the history of philosophy. Then follows the overview, after which I explain the detail of Rorty's arguments, while developing a line of argument to show that Rorty's final conclusion that there is no objective truth – because the world can be endlessly redescribed – undermines his argumentative strategy. Taking into account Rorty's standard response, according to which he was making a pragmatic social proposal, I conclude that Rorty's desire to avoid the nihilistic conclusion that life is meaningless, led him to transform existentialism into postmodernism; and that the result, however brilliant, is nevertheless unstable and badly motivated.

Citation

Tartaglia, J. (2020). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. In A companion to Rorty (77-99). (1). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118972199.ch5

• Online Publication Date: Feb 14, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 14, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2023
• Publisher: Wiley
• Pages: 77-99
• Edition: 1
• Book Title: A companion to Rorty
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9781118972168
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118972199.ch5
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118972199.ch5
• Related Public URLs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118972199