Rorty's Moral Philosophy for Liberal Democratic Culture

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By this author: Koopman, Colin

Author: Koopman, Colin

Source: Contemporary Pragmatism, Volume 4, Number 2, December 2007 , pp. 45-64(20)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

Richard Rorty's moral writings offer a cogent summary of the moral content of contemporary liberal democratic culture. Rorty insists on a divide between our public and private lives, yet he claims that moral progress (a seemingly public affair) is primarily driven by the imagination of great poetry and philosophy (which Rorty claims are private projects). A pressing tension thus emerges between private imagination and public moral justification, which is also very real in contemporary liberal democratic culture itself. I sketch a way out of this problem, which fits well with the pragmatism he shares with William James and John Dewey.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2007-12-01