Abstract
In Sect. 1, I point out the tension in Rorty’s commitment to both pragmatism and materialism. In Sect. 2, I explain how Rorty sought to justify this combination, and argue that his account is not only implausible but incomplete. In Sect. 3, I explain what I think is the underlying reason for Rorty’s commitment to materialism, namely to promote the social utility of technology for eliminating extreme poverty. After showing how this stance fits into a standard discourse of scientific rationalism, to which a strong opposing case can be made, I conclude, in Sect. 4, that Rorty’s notion of philosophy as cultural politics could be a very useful approach to new technological developments, capable of revitalizing philosophy’s public voice; but only if detached from Rorty’s anti-philosophical agenda.
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Notes
- 1.
Thanks to Bjørn Ramberg for persuading me to tone down my point here.
- 2.
See, for example, Rorty’s glowing review of Dennett’s Consciousness Explained (Rorty 1991a) – Dennett’s main work, in which Rorty’s ideas make a significant entrance at the end (Dennett 1991, p. 461); or see Dennett’s appraisal of the importance Rorty had for young materialists like himself in the 1960s (Dennett 2014, p. vii).
- 3.
For Rorty’s original advocacy of a non-metaphysical materialism, see Rorty 1979, pp. 114–125; for discussion, see Tartaglia 2007, pp. 94–97. As I pointed out in the latter, he officially abandoned eliminative materialism in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. But he only rejected it construed as a metaphysical claim – his non-metaphysical materialism remained as eliminative as ever, as can be seen by his later endorsements of Dennett and of the whole Rylean tradition which taught us, as Rorty saw it, not to take consciousness seriously. See Tartaglia 2017 and 2019, which have references to all of Rorty’s key writings on these issues.
- 4.
Thanks to Martin Müller for the comparison to Rorty’s liberalism.
- 5.
Interestingly, Rorty excludes China from “the North,” thereby showing a surprising lack of foresight for the man who predicted the rise of Donald Trump (Rorty 1999c/1998, pp. 89–90).
- 6.
Like Rorty, Gray has demonstrated impressive prophetic powers (see Gray 2004c/2003).
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Recommended Literature for Further Reading
Rorty, Richard. 1982/1981. Nineteenth-century idealism and twentieth-century textualism. In Consequences of pragmatism, 139–159. Brighton: Harvester Press.
This is the main source for Rorty’s historical story about the progression from idealism to pragmatism, as he saw it. It is also an attempt by Rorty to distance his own views from idealism. It is one of Rorty’s classic papers, I think.
Rorty, Richard. 1999/1992. Love and money. In Philosophy and social hope, 223–228. London: Penguin.
This short piece is the key to understanding the connection in Rorty’s mind between metaphysical materialism and technological progress, in my view.
Rorty, Richard. 2007/2004. Cultural politics and the question of the existence of God. In Philosophy as cultural politics: philosophical papers, volume 4, 3–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This article, written toward the end of Rorty’s career, is the clearest statement and defense of his notion of “philosophy as cultural politics.” It contains interesting reflections on both religion and recent debates in the philosophy of consciousness.
Gray, John. 2004. Heresies: Against progress and other illusions. London: Granta Books.
Gray is always outspoken and fascinating to read. His main stance is that the idea of progress is an illusion inherited from religious belief; I find this collection of papers a marked improvement on his better-known Straw Dogs.
Scharff, Robert C., and Val Dusek, Eds. 2003. Philosophy of technology: The technological condition, an anthology. Oxford: Blackwell.
An excellent introduction to the philosophy of technology, containing both historical and contemporary readings.
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Tartaglia, J. (2022). Technology and Rorty’s Cultural Politics. In: Müller, M. (eds) Handbuch Richard Rorty. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16260-3_39-1
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