Jim Farmelant
On Mon, 25 May 1998 14:13:55 -0400 (EDT) "Frances Bolton (PHI)"
<fbolton at chuma.cas.usf.edu> writes:
>
>
>On Mon, 25 May 1998, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> Frances Bolton (PHI) wrote:
>> >Umm...He's taken seriously, but strongly disliked, by philosophers,
>but
>> >not for stuff like this.
>>
>> Why then?
>>
>The philosopher's index CD rom shows that there is in fact a small
>philosophical cottage industry devoted to criticizing Rorty's work.
>Off
>the top of my head, I can think of one thing I've read in support of
>Rorty
>(Kolenda's _Rorty's Pragmatic Humanism_) alhough there's got to be
>more.
>Perhaps John St. Clair will know of other positive pieces on Rorty.
>
>Rorty is taken seriously because he has done a pretty systematic
>slamming
>of what philosophy is supposed to be about. He's said that
>epistemology is
>stupid, universal claims are useless, and that philosophy itself, in
>the
>wake of the Analytic tradition, is nothing more than an empty shell of
>what it used to be. He thinks that philosophy should inspire as well
>as
>cut through fuzzy thinking. If you make it to the last chapter of R.'s
>book, you'll be able to read that for yorself. He also suggests that
>the
>"inspirational" work once thought to be philosophical is actually more
>successfully done by novels and "muckraking journalists." He also
>remarks
>that philosophers are not even useful as ethicists. Ethics should be
>done
>by those who have read about lots and lots of ethical dilemmas. So, he
>thinks literary theorists make better ethicists.
>
>Rorty is one of the most well-known philosophers in the country, along
>with West, Nussbaum, and Walzer (or is he poli sci?). Nussbaum takes
>philosophy seriously and works within the discipline, West doesn't
>really
>do much within philosophy, but doesn't say anything about it either
>way.
>Ditto Walzer, who I don't even think is a philosopher. Rorty is
>well-known, and an egomaniac (his picture is on the front cover of two
>of
>his books.) He's a big famous philosopher standing outside a
>philosophy
>dept. (professor of the humanities at UVA) pointing into philosophy
>depts.
>and loudly proclaiming that there are a bunch of bozos inside. I kind
>of
>like him when he starts going off on philosophy departments.
>
>No wonder the philosophers all hate him. Actually, Richard Bernstein
>(New
>School) likes him, but I think that's only because they went to
>college
>together.
>
>Frances
>
>
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