Anti-foundationalism, private irony, public solidarity and social hope

Abstract

Rorty is not willing to sacrifice autonomy for the community’s sake, nor is he willing to give up his desire to live in a community governed by a sense of solidarity for the Nietzschean maxim of self-creation. He also does not in any way seek a method which will help him unify the two desires in theory. For Rorty, the sort of language an individual uses when she seeks to create herself is very different from the language that one uses in democratic liberal politics. Not only they are very different, but they should also be considered as incommensurable, and kept away from each other at all costs. Thus, as we can see, a private-public divide is crucial in sustaining Rorty’s ideal liberal polity.