Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- The Twentieth Century: Quine and After: Introduction
- 1 W. V. Quine: Word and Object
- 2 P. F. Strawson: Individuals
- 3 John Rawls: A Theory of Justice
- 4 Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- 5 Michael Dummett: Truth and Other Enigmas
- 6 Richard Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
- 7 Donald Davidson: Essays on Actions and Events
- 8 Saul Kripke: Naming and Necessity
- 9 Hilary Putnam: Reason, Truth and History
- 10 Bernard Williams: Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy
- 11 Thomas Nagel: The View From Nowhere
- 12 David Lewis: On the Plurality of Worlds
- 13 Charles Taylor: Sources of the Self
- 14 John McDowell: Mind and World
- Index
6 - Richard Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- The Twentieth Century: Quine and After: Introduction
- 1 W. V. Quine: Word and Object
- 2 P. F. Strawson: Individuals
- 3 John Rawls: A Theory of Justice
- 4 Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- 5 Michael Dummett: Truth and Other Enigmas
- 6 Richard Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
- 7 Donald Davidson: Essays on Actions and Events
- 8 Saul Kripke: Naming and Necessity
- 9 Hilary Putnam: Reason, Truth and History
- 10 Bernard Williams: Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy
- 11 Thomas Nagel: The View From Nowhere
- 12 David Lewis: On the Plurality of Worlds
- 13 Charles Taylor: Sources of the Self
- 14 John McDowell: Mind and World
- Index
Summary
When we try to examine the mirror in itself, we discover in the end nothing but the things upon it. If we want to grasp the things, we finally get hold of nothing but the mirror – This, in the most general terms, is the history of knowledge.
(Nietzsche 1995: 127)Richard Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature may be viewed as a sustained meditation on the philosophical significance and consequences of these remarks by Nietzsche. It is an iconoclastic book. But it is one that any person seriously interested in what philosophy is, how it came to be what it is and what it might eventually become should want to read, and re-read, whether or not they are disposed to agree with its controversial conclusions. In many ways, it is also a unique text. Certainly, no other book in recent times has launched such a detailed and extensive attack on the presuppositions and preoccupations of the dominant traditions of Western philosophy. Indeed, the closest competitor is probably Ernest Gellner's Words and Things (1966), which does not come very close at all. It generated heated controversy for a short time, especially in the Letters section of the London Times, but now pales by comparison in terms of depth of argumentation, degree of influence and overall historical scope and ambition.
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- Information
- Central Works of Philosophy , pp. 126 - 145Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2006