Summary of Richard Rorty's Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

#1 The pragmatists’ objection to the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence to the intrinsic nature of reality is that it requires us to humble ourselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality. We must set aside any authority save that of a consensus of our fellow humans.

#2 Dewey was a utilitarian, which means he believed that in the end, the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action or holding a belief will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness. He saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment and get out from under the past.

#3 Pragmatism is the philosophy of inquiry, and it was developed by Charles Sanders Peirce, George Herbert Mead, and William James. It was anti-foundationalist, coherentist, and holist in its view of the nature of inquiry. It was anti-Cartesian in its view of the universe as evolving.

#4 The three founding pragmatists were Peirce, James, and Dewey. They were all American, and they all had different philosophical concerns. They were all disciples of Kant, but they each improved on his doctrine of categories and his conception of logic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669385271

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Insights on Richard Rorty's Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The pragmatists’ objection to the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence to the intrinsic nature of reality is that it requires us to humble ourselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality. We must set aside any authority save that of a consensus of our fellow humans.

#2

Dewey was a utilitarian, which means he believed that in the end, the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action or holding a belief will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness. He saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment and get out from under the past.

#3

Pragmatism is the philosophy of inquiry, and it was developed by Charles Sanders Peirce, George Herbert Mead, and William James. It was anti-foundationalist, coherentist, and holist in its view of the nature of inquiry. It was anti-Cartesian in its view of the universe as evolving.

#4

The three founding pragmatists were Peirce, James, and Dewey. They were all American, and they all had different philosophical concerns. They were all disciples of Kant, but they each improved on his doctrine of categories and his conception of logic.

#5

Dewey, in his early period, tried to bring Hegel together with evangelical Christianity. He saw changes in individual attitudes, public policies, and strategies of acculturation as three interlinked aspects of the gradual development of more democratic communities.

#6

Peirce was a latecomer to the field of philosophy, and he did not become engaged with the problem of how to reconcile science and religion like James and Dewey did. He did not take religion seriously, and he did not experience any great spiritual crises.

#7

The need to bring his father into the same intellectual universe as his scientifically oriented friends was important in shaping James’s thought. He learned from Hegel how to tell great sweeping stories about the relation of