Rorty believes that philosophy, as it stands, is inadequate in explaining
human nature and his work attempts to fuse a philosophical perspective with
literature. Novelists such as Orwell and Nabokov are discussed in detail to
point out where philosophers have failed.In this book, major American philosopher Richard Rorty argues that thinkers
such as Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein have enabled societies to see
themselves as historical contingencies, rather than as expressions of
underlying, ahistorical human nature, or as realizations of suprahistorical
goals. This ironic perspective on the human condition is valuable but it cannot
advance Liberalism's social and political goals. In fact, Rorty believes that
it is literature and not philosophy that can do this, by promoting a genuine
sense of human solidarity. Specifically, it is novelists such as Orwell and
Nabokov who succeed in awakening us to the cruelty of particular social
practices and individual attitudes. Thus, a truly liberal culture would fuse
the private, individual freedom of the ironic, philosophical perspective with
the public project of human solidarity as it is engendered through the insights
and sensibilities of great writers. Rorty uses a wide range of references--from
philosophy to social theory to literary criticism--to elucidate his
beliefs.
