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Richard Rorty:

Edification and Naturalism

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Notions you need to know

Edification: moral, intellectual or

spiritual improvement by

enlightenment or uplifting actionsArt edifies the space it is placed in

Comprehension edifies the world around

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Naturalism: in the universe, laws ofnature exist and function exclusively;the belief that nature governs thestructure and behavior of the universe;

nothing exists beyond nature, but if itdoes, it does not affect the naturalworld.

Ghosts, spirits, supernatural entities donot exist

There is no purpose in nature

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Epistemology: the theory of knowledge,with concern towards methods, validity

and purpose; questions what knowledge isand how it can be obtained; how much ofan object or entity can truly be known

and how much remains unknownHow knowledge relates to truth, belief and

justification (of actions, thoughts,

propositions, etc.)There is a difference between knowing

that, knowing how and acquaintance-knowledge

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Hermeneutics:a branch of knowledge thatdeals with interpretation of things, entities and

notions, concerns mostly text interpretation

Metaphysics: concerned with thefundamental nature of reality and existence, it

studies what is outside of objective experience,structure and constitution of reality

Pour-soi: abstract, a being that has feelings,

being for itself En-soi: material, a being with no feelings,

being in itself

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Edification and naturalism

Rortys essay deals with the methodology ofresolving philosophical issues such as the

distinction between spirit and nature,

transcendental hermeneutics and the search for

objective knowledge

He evokes works of many philosophers in his

rhetoric and works his way towards a conclusion

of his own, about how we objectivize ourselves

by reflection, changing our opinions, vocabulary

and behavior through time

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Hermeneutics and phenomenology both suggestways in which we might create a transcendentalstandpoint, refusing the notion that change inbehavior results from change in self-descriptionwhich in turn brings forth the objectivization ofhuman beings

Rorty believes that we should not expectphilosophy to answer questions left unansweredby science

Transcendental hermeneutics promises to seefreedom as nature and advocates normaldiscourse as an element of edification

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Habermas: transcendental

philosophy can analyze what

functions knowledge has inpractice

If cognitive interests are analyzed

through inquiry in natural and

cognitive sciences, they are

transcendental in nature

If analyzed in the contexts of

anthropology, they are empiricalin nature

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Rorty feels it unnecessary to find a general way

to analyze these roles, advocating the use of

cultural anthropology as enough

Habermas: transcendental corroboration

criticizez an overly self-confident self-

understanding of itself because it comes upwith subjective conditions that make a theory

possible and limited at the same time

Overconfidence: thinking that there istruthfulness to reality in philosophical realism

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Analysis of

categorical

structure of

objects

Distinction:people as

empirical selves

and moral agents

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Normal scientific discourse can be seen in two

ways:

1. Successful search for objective truth2. One discourse among other in which we engage

Error in systematic philosophy: answering theabove questions with new discourse, which is

the philosophers bad faith, substitutingpseudo-

cognitionfor moral choice

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Kant made possible to see scientific truth as

something unable to supply a point, a justification

and to claim that our moral decisions are based onknowledge of the nature of the world by

destroying the traditional conception of reason

He called this the discovery of inevitable subjectiveconditions, which would be revealed by reflection upon

scientific inquiry.

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Rorty tries to recast distinctions (nature & spirit,

objectivizing science & reflection, epistemology

& hermeneutics) in terms of historical andtemporary distinctions betweenfamiliar&

unfamiliarand normal& abnormal.

Allowing us to see them as a distinction betweeninquiryand the questioning out of which inquiries may

or may not emerge

Combining advantages of normality withabnormality

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Epistemology is connected to moral

commitment (reality, truth, objectivity, reason)

Behaviorism within epistemology is to look atnormal discourse in a bifocal way:

As patterns adopted for historical reasons

As achievement of objective truthor the bestexplanation we have so far

Practices of justification may take the form ofsubjective conditions, which are facts about which society

or certain groups think as proof or assertion, and are

studied byanthropology

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Are these subjective conditions beliefs?

They combine common practical imperatives

with standard current theory

These subjective conditions may change

through time, objectivizing their past selvesthrough reflection and making new

sentences true to their present lives (is this

the process through which taboos aboutcertain people change?)

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Rortys conclusions

Transcendentalist explanations are unnecessary, justacceptance of abnormaldiscourse

Everything can be predicted by our minds andthought processes, because we depend on decisions,

intentions and choices We cannot go from apour-soistate to an en-soistate,

so the fear of this happening is unjustified

Abnormal discourse, the catalyst of the process,may face threats from the stigmas abnormal subjectmatters or differently treated subject matters hold insociety, leisured and free conversation being limited

on some scale