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 | | Essays on Heidegger and Others: Volume 2: Philosophical Papers (Rorty, Richard. Philosophical Papers, V. 2.) by Richard Rorty ISBN-10: 9780521353700 ISBN-10: 0-521-35370-X ISBN-13: 9780521353700 ISBN-13: 978-0-521-35370-0 Hardcover 1991-02-22 Cambridge University Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description The second volume pursues the themes of the first volume in the context of discussions of recent European philosophy focusing on the work of Heidegger and Derrida. His four essays on Heidegger include "Philosophy as Science, as Metaphor and as Politics" and "Heidegger, Kundera, and Dickens;" three essays on Derrida (including "Deconstruction and Circumvention" and "Is Derrida a Transcendental Philosopher?") are followed by a discussion of the uses to which Paul de Man and his followers have put certain Derridean ideas. Rorty's concluding essays broaden outward with an essay on "Freud and Moral Deliberation" and essays discussing the social theories and political attitudes of various contemporary figures--Foucault, Lyotard, Habermas, Unger, and Castoriadis. | ||
Reviews | ||
a very poor effort This is the work of a filing clerk and a minor commentator on the ideas of others. Science reveals the 'actuality' and the real effects of external forces and processes every day, and the notion that we can have no perceptual grasp of these other than that provided by linguistic representation is just plain wrong. Dr. Johnson kicked a table in disgust at Berkely's Idealist drivel, to which Rorty is the heir, and it would be nice to hear a lot more tables being kicked across the Western world. In this collection Rorty tackles the ideas of sophisticated European philosphers with all the finesse and subtelty of the Incredible Hulk. This position is becoming rapidly obsolete, so let's not become members of Rorty's 'community of ironic geniuses' and move on. | ||
Provocative connection-making This is a fascinating work wherein Rorty once again proves himself a master of the consolidation of varying ideas and philosophical tracts. Yes, he does borrow a lot of ideas/interpretations from "second source" philosophers, people like Okrent, but that shouldn't discourage potential readers: Rorty excels at making intricate and original connections -- networks of thought. Certainly, not all of his arguments are unassailable, but they are almost always provocative. The points he makes along the way are often as intriguing as the larger point he tries to make with the essay itself. Also, the print, as another reviewer has mentioned, is indeed somewhat small, but I wouldn't say it offers a significant problem as far as reading goes. Oddly, the print in another set of his "philosophical papers," that on Truth and Progress, is larger though also published by Cambridge. Get this book, it's good reading. | ||
Interesting, but... This book is definitely interesting. But, I am amazed at how conveniently Rorty fits the philosophies of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and others into his pragmatic ethnocentrism. It seems that he is using them to help make his own philosophy more compelling, rather than just telling stories about them. But, of course he would do that. Well, anyway, don't be decieved. He is using them for the purpose of propagating his own views. Also, he has a "straw-god" argument against the God of the Bible. When he speaks of "type A entities," all he is talking about is a primus inter pares, not a Transcendental. Interesting kibitzing, though. A good read for philosophasters like myself. | ||
Some interesting possibilities.... In this collection of essays Richard Rorty attempts to answer the question: What, if anything, can we liberal American intellectuals gain from reading the likes of Heidegger and Derrida? His answer: Plenty, if we can just manage to rescue Derrida from his admirers (Norris, Gasche) and Heidegger from himself. This volume also contains shrewd and provocative discussions of Habermas, Lyotard, and the loathsome Foucault. Readers new to Rorty might want to begin with the fourth essay: HEIDEGGER, KUNDERA, AND DICKENS. It's a reflection on the moral worth of the European novel and manages to touch on many of the themes Rorty has explored in his more recent writings. WARNING! The print font is tiny! Cambridge University Press should be ashamed of itself. | ||
Don't be taken in WOW. That's what most people will say as they read this & think what a brilliant stylist Rorty is, how reasonable he makes his ideas sound, how "postmodern" and original etc. etc. it all is, bringing in Heidegger and Wittgenstein and Freud and even Dickens and making them all sound like they're saying the same thing. If you cut through all the blurb there's actually not much solid argument there. He gets all his pragmatist interpretations of Heidegger from Okrent, like he admits, rather than thinking it through himself, and doesn't bring them to any startlingly new conclusions. He even admits his leftist-Nietzschean-Deweyan stance has no "logical" reason or meaning behind it, yet he claims its better than other viewpoints! Once you throw away meaning, you can't apply it to yourself. He also displays no knowledge of psychology except Freud, and so just about accepts Freud was mostly right, like most Americans who read Freud & assume there's no need to read anyone else. Binswanger? Grof? Jung? Not only that, but he then subverts Freud's ideas to his own agenda. There's a lot of interesting ideas thrown up, and a lot of food for thought, but in the end there's no original content of any worth. He just picks & chooses the parts of philosophers he likes to make it seem like they all lead towards his own pragmatic socialist stance, when if he took into account all the information there's nobody he quotes, not even Dewey, (except perhaps Foucalt - another overrated "postmodernist" type) who really would accept Rorty's use of them, were they to read it. If you read all the texts he quotes/likes/attacks from "Being & Time", Husserl's "Crisis..." Nietzsche's works, Quine, Jacques Derrida, Plato -and read them all, and Rorty's, critically - you'll come to realise that if Rorty's right there's not a lot point to it all anymore - except he's NOT right. | ||