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Richard Rorty
Editorial for "Kritika & Kontext" 34 (2007)
Debate
In May 2007, Kritika & Kontext published an article by Richard Rorty originally delivered as a lecture in Tehran. Béla Egyed's response to it is published in the forthcoming issue of Kritika & Kontext, along with Rorty's rejoinder, perhaps the last text he wrote before his death, and Samuel Abraham's editorial to the issue. [ more ]
Richard Rorty
Democracy and philosophy
Béla Egyed
"We anti-foundationalists"
Richard Rorty
A rejoinder to Béla Egyed
Samual Abrahám
Richard Rorty. Editorial for "Kritika & Kontext" 34 (2007)
We have been preparing this issue for almost a year, under the title "Richard Rorty at 75". This was to have been a second dossier dedicated to him in K & K. In 1998, we published an extended, almost seventy-page-long dossier under the title "Profile of a Pragmatic Philosopher" (3-4/1998, see www.kritika.sk). Besides an exclusive interview reprinted at the end of this issue, we published Rorty's lectures given in Bratislava in June 1992.
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty's death on 8 June 2007 prompted a number of journals in the Eurozine network to publish obituaries and articles. We republish them here along with articles from the Eurozine archive. [ more ]
Jan Philipp Reemtsma
Richard Rorty. An obituary
J‡nos Salamon
The afternoon of a pragmatist faun
Samuel Abrah‡m, Richard Rorty
Without illusion, but with conviction. The pragmatism of Richard Rorty
Samuel Abrah‡m, BŽla Egyed, Egon G‡l, John Hall, Russel Jacoby, Richard Rorty
The dull decencies of normality. A debate on the contemporary uses of liberalism
Also in this issue we offer a severe but sincere critique by Professor Béla Egyed, who was in Bratislava at the time reading Plato's Republic with students at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA). We sent it to Rorty with a certain apprehension, since we were intending to dedicate the next issue to him. We thought it natural to give Rorty a chance to respond – which he did: promptly, succinctly, and firmly, as so often before. Sadly, we now publish it posthumously. We do the same for Rorty's contribution on Nietzsche, which we originally planned to publish in the next issue.
Reading Rorty's philosophical and above all political texts, written in brilliant and distinct style, I was fascinated by his personal dedication, sincerity, and concern about issues that societies are able to resolve, but due to inattention, greed, or fanaticism, often neglect. Philosophically, Rorty called himself a pragmatist, politically he was liberal-left (with a certain glee he called himself a "postmodern bourgeois liberal"). For me, however, what defined him was a talk he gave in Bratislava in 1996 at a conference about the role of intellectuals in society. In my K & K editorial in 1998 I wrote about this event:
Instead of offering another variation on the theme of "revering or rebuffing intellectuals", Rorty launched into a discussion of the insoluble problem of poverty and criminality among African-Americans in the ghettos of American inner-cities. Admittedly, many of us in the audience were somewhat startled by his choice of topic. Gradually, however, he made his meaning clear. Any debate about the role of intellectuals, he explained sincerely and with apologies to his hosts, was irrelevant as long as intellectuals remain unable and unwilling to solve the tragic state of affairs that leaves the inner-city ghettos to languish in poverty and despair.
His expression of concern, worry, and frustration represents for me the quintessential position that an engaged but also humble intellectual should take. It can also be traced in the following statement, about the future: "[I am] very pessimistic indeed [...] I do not see how nuclear war is to be avoided or how the poor nations are to be raised to the level of the rich ones." I believe that his scepticism also contains an appeal that, despite apparent hopelessness, we should not become resigned.A true sceptic remains silent in depression, a cynic laughs with Schadenfreude, while Rorty pleads with us before it is too late – sadly, after 8 June, only through his texts.
Published 2007-08-07
Original in Slovak
First published in Kritika & Kontext 34 (2007)
Contributed by Kritika & Kontext
© Samuel Abrahám/Kritika & Kontext
© Eurozine
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