Jacob Burg

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Keywords

Minimal Realism, Rorty, Richard, Ethics, McDowell, John

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

In the following work, I critique Rorty's rejection of the 'language of Objectivity' and the commensurability of vocabularies and paradigms in his move towards an ethics of reducing human suffering. My task is two-fold: 1) I explain how and why this move betrays Rorty’s effort to "create human solidarity" via the "reduction of pain, humiliation, and cruelty" and 2) I offer an alternative approach I call minimal realism in an effort to achieve Rorty’s goals while still retaining Objectivity and the commensurability of vocabularies. In Chapter One, I trace the shifts in Rorty's work to find the genesis of his rejection of epistemology and 'Objectivity', his shift to ethics, and the terminological distinctions of the concepts he deploys before introducing some critiques that structure the rest of the work. Chapter Two outlines a different approach to the 'language of Objectivity' through an examination of John McDowell's Mind and World; the goal of the chapter is to extract elements of McDowell's position that I see as beneficial to Rorty’s ethical project without succumbing to its traps, a position I call minimal realism. Such minimal realism acknowledges that aspects of our conceptual spontaneity structure our perception of the world, while also acknowledging that such concepts track features of the world through the double efficacy of rational and causal constraints. In Chapter Three, I examine the conception of minimal realism discussed in Chapter 2 with specific reference to the dimension of pain as it relates to the realization of Rorty's ethical ideal of "creating human solidarity." Chapter Four concludes by pointing to how minimal realism might be capable of achieving Rorty's task of "creating solidarity" without falling into the pitfalls he associates with the 'language of Objectivity.' The thesis hopes to sketch a path capable of broaching Rorty's constructive and progressive efforts in his turn against epistemology without falling prey to a narrative that severs our connection to the world that exists beyond our languages and vocabularies.

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