%0 Journal Article
%T Taking Rorty¡¯s Irony Seriously
%A Andrew Inkpin
%J Humanities
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/h2020292
%X Richard Rorty¡¯s Contingency, Irony and Solidarity ( CIS) is an ambitious and provocative, but for many readers a deeply flawed work. This paper argues that many of its apparent flaws can be understood as integral to Rorty¡¯s attempt to write a work of private, post-theoretical irony. The paper¡¯s first section outlines the substantive theoretical claims about language, selfhood and community which Rorty proposes as an antiessentialist alternative to ¡®metaphysics¡¯. The second identifies three difficulties¡ªresidual dualism, conceptual problems with the public-private distinction, and the work¡¯s self-referential consistency¡ªwhich constitute serious, but obvious problems for those substantive claims. The third section argues that Rorty¡¯s metaphilosophical discussion of ¡®ironist theory¡¯ suggests CIS should be read as a personal work of irony which eschews theoretical ambitions, showing how this is consistent with and provides a motive for accepting the presence of conspicuous difficulties. The final section considers how the work¡¯s metaphilosophical views interact with its substantive theoretical claims. The work¡¯s irony is interpreted as resulting from the tension between these, so as to coexist rather than conflict with Rorty¡¯s enduring commitments to liberalism and pragmatism.
%K Rorty
%K irony
%K metaphilosophy
%K pragmatism
%K continental philosophy
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/2/2/292