Rorty QOTD
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Rorty QOTD
@rortyquotes.bsky.social
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Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007): pragmatist, ironist, and panrelationalist.
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rortyquotes.bsky.social
Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · Oct 3
On the eve of Richard McKay Rorty's 94th birthday*, announcing @rortyquotes: dedicated to tweeting a fresh #Rorty banger each and every day of the year—starting tomorrow!

* And the day, 79 years ago, that Rorty went off to the University of Chicago's Hutchins College.
rortyquotes.bsky.social
James is a connoisseur of unusual experiences. His reaction to report of the rapture of the soul is like his reaction to the experience of the SF earthquake of 1907: he wanted the earthquake to become more intense, to show what it could really do.
PasAA p.15
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#BeautyVsSublimity
I have discussed elsewhere James’ and Dewey’s solutions to the problem of reconciling science with theology, and have argued that Dewey was more successful than James in purifying religion of the appeal to authority (4). This was, I think, because James got a kick out of sublimity—out of the sense of limitlessness—whereas Dewey did not. James, in his Varieties of Religious Experience, is a connoisseur of unusual experiences. His reaction to report of the rapture of the soul is like his reaction to the experience of the San Francisco earthquake of 1907: he wanted the earthquake to become more intense, to show what it could really do. Dewey seems to have been incapable of such connoisseurship, and of any Bataille-like fascination with the extreme. His taste is for the beautiful.
February 19, 2026 at 3:01 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Dewey was more successful than James in purifying religion of the appeal to authority. This was, I think, because James got a kick out of sublimity—out of the sense of limitlessness—whereas Dewey did not.
PasAA p.15
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Antiauthoritarianism
[Quote for 2026-02-18, posted belatedly.]
I have discussed elsewhere James’ and Dewey’s solutions to the problem of reconciling science with theology, and have argued that Dewey was more successful than James in purifying religion of the appeal to authority (4). This was, I think, because James got a kick out of sublimity—out of the sense of limitlessness—whereas Dewey did not. James, in his Varieties of Religious Experience, is a connoisseur of unusual experiences. His reaction to report of the rapture of the soul is like his reaction to the experience of the San Francisco earthquake of 1907: he wanted the earthquake to become more intense, to show what it could really do. Dewey seems to have been incapable of such connoisseurship, and of any Bataille-like fascination with the extreme. His taste is for the beautiful.
February 19, 2026 at 1:00 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Seeing anti-representationalism as a version of anti-authoritarianism permits one to appreciate an analogy which was central to John Dewey’s thought: the analogy between ceasing to believe in Sin and ceasing to accept the distinction between Reality and Appearance.
PasAA p.1
#Antiauthoritarianism
There is a useful analogy to be drawn between the pragmatists’ criticism of the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence to the intrinsic nature of reality and the Enlightenment’s criticism of the idea that morality is a matter of correspondence to the will of a Divine Being. The pragmatists’ anti-representationalist account of belief is, among other things, a protest against the idea that human beings must humble themselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality. Seeing anti-representationalism as a version of anti-authoritarianism permits one to appreciate an analogy which was central to John Dewey’s thought: the analogy between ceasing to believe in Sin and ceasing to accept the distinction between Reality and Appearance.
February 17, 2026 at 3:01 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
The pragmatists’ anti-representationalist account of belief is a protest against the idea that human beings must humble themselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality.
PasAA p.1
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Antiauthoritarianism
There is a useful analogy to be drawn between the pragmatists’ criticism of the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence to the intrinsic nature of reality and the Enlightenment’s criticism of the idea that morality is a matter of correspondence to the will of a Divine Being. The pragmatists’ anti-representationalist account of belief is, among other things, a protest against the idea that human beings must humble themselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality. Seeing anti-representationalism as a version of anti-authoritarianism permits one to appreciate an analogy which was central to John Dewey’s thought: the analogy between ceasing to believe in Sin and ceasing to accept the distinction between Reality and Appearance.
February 16, 2026 at 3:01 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
There is a useful analogy to be drawn between the pragmatists’ criticism of the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence [MOC] to the intrinsic nature of reality and the Enlightenment’s criticism of the idea that morality is a MOC to the will of a Divine Being.
PasAA p.1
#Rorty
#Truth
There is a useful analogy to be drawn between the pragmatists’ criticism of the idea that truth is a matter of correspondence to the intrinsic nature of reality and the Enlightenment’s criticism of the idea that morality is a matter of correspondence to the will of a Divine Being. The pragmatists’ anti-representationalist account of belief is, among other things, a protest against the idea that human beings must humble themselves before something non-human, whether the Will of God or the Intrinsic Nature of Reality. Seeing anti-representationalism as a version of anti-authoritarianism permits one to appreciate an analogy which was central to John Dewey’s thought: the analogy between ceasing to believe in Sin and ceasing to accept the distinction between Reality and Appearance.
February 15, 2026 at 3:00 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Dewey hoped each new generation would try to cobble together some more useful beliefs—beliefs which would help them make human life richer, fuller, and happier.
PasAA p.3
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Dewey
Dewey, like James, was a utilitarian: he thought that in the end the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action, or holding a belief, will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness. He saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment, to get out from under the past. So he hoped we should learn to view current scientific, religious, philosophical, and moral beliefs with the skepticism with which Bentham viewed the laws of England: he hoped each new generation would try to cobble together some more useful beliefs—beliefs which would help them make human life richer, fuller, and happier.
February 14, 2026 at 3:02 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Dewey saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment, to get out from under the past.
PasAA p.3
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Dewey
Dewey, like James, was a utilitarian: he thought that in the end the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action, or holding a belief, will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness. He saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment, to get out from under the past. So he hoped we should learn to view current scientific, religious, philosophical, and moral beliefs with the skepticism with which Bentham viewed the laws of England: he hoped each new generation would try to cobble together some more useful beliefs—beliefs which would help them make human life richer, fuller, and happier.
February 13, 2026 at 3:05 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Dewey, like James, was a utilitarian: he thought that in the end the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action, or holding a belief, will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness.
PasAA p.3
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Dewey
Dewey, like James, was a utilitarian: he thought that in the end the only moral or epistemological criteria we have or need is whether performing an action, or holding a belief, will, in the long run, make for greater human happiness. He saw progress as produced by increasing willingness to experiment, to get out from under the past. So he hoped we should learn to view current scientific, religious, philosophical, and moral beliefs with the skepticism with which Bentham viewed the laws of England: he hoped each new generation would try to cobble together some more useful beliefs—beliefs which would help them make human life richer, fuller, and happier.
February 12, 2026 at 3:05 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
I see myself as having shifted a few pieces around on the philosophical chess-board, rather than as having answered any deep questions or produced any elevating thoughts.
PasAA p.xxxv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
Since these lectures cover quite a wide variety of topics and philosophical debates, it may be tempting to think of them as offering a philosophical system. But pragmatists should not offer systems. To be consistent with our own account of philosophical progress, we pragmatists must be content to offer suggestions about how to patch things up, how to adjust things to each other, how to rearrange them into slightly more useful patterns. That is what I hope to have done in these lectures. I see myself as having shifted a few pieces around on the philosophical chess-board, rather than as having answered any deep questions or produced any elevating thoughts.
February 11, 2026 at 3:04 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
To be consistent with our own account of philosophical progress, we pragmatists must be content to offer suggestions about how to patch things up, how to adjust things to each other, how to rearrange them into slightly more useful patterns.
PasAA p.xxxv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
Since these lectures cover quite a wide variety of topics and philosophical debates, it may be tempting to think of them as offering a philosophical system. But pragmatists should not offer systems. To be consistent with our own account of philosophical progress, we pragmatists must be content to offer suggestions about how to patch things up, how to adjust things to each other, how to rearrange them into slightly more useful patterns. That is what I hope to have done in these lectures. I see myself as having shifted a few pieces around on the philosophical chess-board, rather than as having answered any deep questions or produced any elevating thoughts.
February 10, 2026 at 3:04 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
It may be tempting to think of these lectures as offering a philosophical system. But pragmatists should not offer systems.
PasAA p.xxxv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
Since these lectures cover quite a wide variety of topics and philosophical debates, it may be tempting to think of them as offering a philosophical system. But pragmatists should not offer systems. To be consistent with our own account of philosophical progress, we pragmatists must be content to offer suggestions about how to patch things up, how to adjust things to each other, how to rearrange them into slightly more useful patterns. That is what I hope to have done in these lectures. I see myself as having shifted a few pieces around on the philosophical chess-board, rather than as having answered any deep questions or produced any elevating thoughts.
February 9, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
From the pan-relationalist point of view, great intellectual achievements (Hegel’s system) are not categorically different from small technical achievements (getting the pieces to fit together neatly in a piece of cabinetry).
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The second lecture in this pair—“Against Depth”—says that if we are pan-relationalists we shall see everything on, so to speak, a single horizontal plane. We shall not search for the sublime either high above, or deep beneath, this plane. We shall instead move things about, rearrange them so as to highlight their relations to other things, in the hope of finding ever more useful, and therefore ever more beautiful, patterns. From this point of view, great intellectual achievements (Newton’s laws, Hegel’s system) are not categorically different from small technical achievements (getting the pieces to fit together neatly in a piece of cabinetry, getting the colors of the landscape to harmonize in a watercolor, finding a reasonable political compromise between conflicting interests).
February 8, 2026 at 3:01 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
We pan-relationalists move things about, rearrange them so as to highlight their relations to other things, in the hope of finding ever more useful, and therefore ever more beautiful, patterns.
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The second lecture in this pair—“Against Depth”—says that if we are pan-relationalists we shall see everything on, so to speak, a single horizontal plane. We shall not search for the sublime either high above, or deep beneath, this plane. We shall instead move things about, rearrange them so as to highlight their relations to other things, in the hope of finding ever more useful, and therefore ever more beautiful, patterns. From this point of view, great intellectual achievements (Newton’s laws, Hegel’s system) are not categorically different from small technical achievements (getting the pieces to fit together neatly in a piece of cabinetry, getting the colors of the landscape to harmonize in a watercolor, finding a reasonable political compromise between conflicting interests).
February 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
If we are pan-relationalists we shall see everything on, so to speak, a single horizontal plane. We shall not search for the sublime either high above, or deep beneath, this plane.
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The second lecture in this pair—“Against Depth”—says that if we are pan-relationalists we shall see everything on, so to speak, a single horizontal plane. We shall not search for the sublime either high above, or deep beneath, this plane. We shall instead move things about, rearrange them so as to highlight their relations to other things, in the hope of finding ever more useful, and therefore ever more beautiful, patterns. From this point of view, great intellectual achievements (Newton’s laws, Hegel’s system) are not categorically different from small technical achievements (getting the pieces to fit together neatly in a piece of cabinetry, getting the colors of the landscape to harmonize in a watercolor, finding a reasonable political compromise between conflicting interests).
February 6, 2026 at 3:02 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
There is no such thing as the correct description of anything: there are only the descriptions which, by relating it to other things, put it in contexts which serve our current, varied, needs.
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The third pair of lectures turns…to what might, somewhat misleadingly, be called metaphysics. In “Panrelationalism” I argue that a lot of the best recent philosophy can be summed up as an attempt to get rid of the substance-accident and essence-accident distinctions by claiming that nothing can have a self-identity, a nature, apart from its relations to other things. I argue that a thing has as many identities as there are relational contexts into which it can be put. This suggestion chimes with my suggestion (in an essay called “Inquiry as Recontextualization” which I published some years ago) that there is no such thing as “the correct context” in which to read a text, place a person, or explain an event. Rather, there are as many such contexts as there are human purposes. For the same reason, there is no such thing as the correct description of anything: there are only the descriptions which, by relating it to other things, put it in contexts which serve our current, varied, needs.
February 5, 2026 at 3:04 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
There is no such thing as “the correct context” in which to read a text, place a person, or explain an event. Rather, there are as many such contexts as there are human purposes.
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The third pair of lectures turns…to what might, somewhat misleadingly, be called metaphysics. In “Panrelationalism” I argue that a lot of the best recent philosophy can be summed up as an attempt to get rid of the substance-accident and essence-accident distinctions by claiming that nothing can have a self-identity, a nature, apart from its relations to other things. I argue that a thing has as many identities as there are relational contexts into which it can be put. This suggestion chimes with my suggestion (in an essay called “Inquiry as Recontextualization” which I published some years ago) that there is no such thing as “the correct context” in which to read a text, place a person, or explain an event. Rather, there are as many such contexts as there are human purposes. For the same reason, there is no such thing as the correct description of anything: there are only the descriptions which, by relating it to other things, put it in contexts which serve our current, varied, needs.
February 4, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
A thing has as many identities as there are relational contexts into which it can be put.
PasAA p.xxxiv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The third pair of lectures turns…to what might, somewhat misleadingly, be called metaphysics. In “Panrelationalism” I argue that a lot of the best recent philosophy can be summed up as an attempt to get rid of the substance-accident and essence-accident distinctions by claiming that nothing can have a self-identity, a nature, apart from its relations to other things. I argue that a thing has as many identities as there are relational contexts into which it can be put. This suggestion chimes with my suggestion (in an essay called “Inquiry as Recontextualization” which I published some years ago) that there is no such thing as “the correct context” in which to read a text, place a person, or explain an event. Rather, there are as many such contexts as there are human purposes. For the same reason, there is no such thing as the correct description of anything: there are only the descriptions which, by relating it to other things, put it in contexts which serve our current, varied, needs.
February 3, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
A lot of the best recent philosophy can be summed up as an attempt to get rid of the substance-accident and essence-accident distinctions by claiming that nothing can have a self-identity, a nature, apart from its relations to other things.
PasAA p.xxxiii
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Panrelationalism
The third pair of lectures turns…to what might, somewhat misleadingly, be called metaphysics. In “Panrelationalism” I argue that a lot of the best recent philosophy can be summed up as an attempt to get rid of the substance-accident and essence-accident distinctions by claiming that nothing can have a self-identity, a nature, apart from its relations to other things. I argue that a thing has as many identities as there are relational contexts into which it can be put. This suggestion chimes with my suggestion (in an essay called “Inquiry as Recontextualization” which I published some years ago) that there is no such thing as “the correct context” in which to read a text, place a person, or explain an event. Rather, there are as many such contexts as there are human purposes. For the same reason, there is no such thing as the correct description of anything: there are only the descriptions which, by relating it to other things, put it in contexts which serve our current, varied, needs.
February 2, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
We should be as suspicious of attempts to ground political proposals on large theories of the Nature of Modernity as we are of attempts to ground them on the Will of God.
PasAA p.xxxiii
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate
In the spirit of Dewey, we should see these institutions as tools to be justified by their success in getting certain finite jobs done, rather than as instantiations of eternal truths. Moral and political principles should be viewed as abbreviations for narratives of successful use of tools, summaries of the results of successful experiments, rather than as insights into the nature of anything large (Society, or History, or Humanity). We should be as suspicious of attempts to ground political proposals on large theories of the Nature of Modernity as we are of attempts to ground them on the Will of God.
February 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Moral & political principles should be viewed as abbreviations for narratives of successful use of tools, summaries of the results of successful experiments, rather than as insights into the nature of anything large (Society, History, or Humanity).
PasAA p.xxxiii
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate
In the spirit of Dewey, we should see these institutions as tools to be justified by their success in getting certain finite jobs done, rather than as instantiations of eternal truths. Moral and political principles should be viewed as abbreviations for narratives of successful use of tools, summaries of the results of successful experiments, rather than as insights into the nature of anything large (Society, or History, or Humanity). We should be as suspicious of attempts to ground political proposals on large theories of the Nature of Modernity as we are of attempts to ground them on the Will of God.
January 31, 2026 at 3:02 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
In the spirit of Dewey, we should see public institutions as tools to be justified by their success in getting certain finite jobs done, rather than as instantiations of eternal truths.
PasAA p.xxxii
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate
In the spirit of Dewey, we should see these institutions as tools to be justified by their success in getting certain finite jobs done, rather than as instantiations of eternal truths. Moral and political principles should be viewed as abbreviations for narratives of successful use of tools, summaries of the results of successful experiments, rather than as insights into the nature of anything large (Society, or History, or Humanity). We should be as suspicious of attempts to ground political proposals on large theories of the Nature of Modernity as we are of attempts to ground them on the Will of God.
January 30, 2026 at 3:04 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
Our lives would be far less varied, and the forms of happiness for which we are able to strive would be much poorer without quests for greatness or sublimity. But this does not mean that we should arrange our public institutions to suit such quests.
PasAA p.xxxii
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate
Since I initially broached this suggestion of the need to split the private from the public (in my Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity) I have been criticized for trying to put the two in watertight compartments. I have no wish to do that. The utility of imaginative feats, bound by no social norms, for the public discourse of later ages is undeniable. Had thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Kant, and artists like Dante, El Greco, and Dostoevsky, not aspired to sublimity, the rest of us would not possess the beautiful residues of these aspirations. Our lives would be far less varied, and the forms of happiness for which we are able to strive would be much poorer. But this does not mean that we should arrange our public institutions to suit the quest for greatness or for sublimity.
January 29, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
The utility of imaginative feats, bound by no social norms, for the public discourse of later ages is undeniable. Had thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Kant not aspired to sublimity, the rest of us would not possess the beautiful residues of these aspirations.
PasAA p.(xxxii)
#PublicVsPrivate
Since I initially broached this suggestion of the need to split the private from the public (in my Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity) I have been criticized for trying to put the two in watertight compartments. I have no wish to do that. The utility of imaginative feats, bound by no social norms, for the public discourse of later ages is undeniable. Had thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Kant, and artists like Dante, El Greco, and Dostoevsky, not aspired to sublimity, the rest of us would not possess the beautiful residues of these aspirations. Our lives would be far less varied, and the forms of happiness for which we are able to strive would be much poorer. But this does not mean that we should arrange our public institutions to suit the quest for greatness or for sublimity.
January 28, 2026 at 3:04 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
I have been criticized for trying to put public and private in watertight compartments. I have no wish to do that.
PasAA p.(xxxii)
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate
Since I initially broached this suggestion of the need to split the private from the public (in my Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity) I have been criticized for trying to put the two in watertight compartments. I have no wish to do that. The utility of imaginative feats, bound by no social norms, for the public discourse of later ages is undeniable. Had thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Kant, and artists like Dante, El Greco, and Dostoevsky, not aspired to sublimity, the rest of us would not possess the beautiful residues of these aspirations. Our lives would be far less varied, and the forms of happiness for which we are able to strive would be much poorer. But this does not mean that we should arrange our public institutions to suit the quest for greatness or for sublimity.
January 27, 2026 at 3:03 PM
rortyquotes.bsky.social
We should see the quest for the sublime, as Freud saw the sublimation of sexual desire, as a precondition for certain striking individual achievements. But we should not see it as relevant to our public, socio-political, cultural prospects.
PasAA p.(xxxi)
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Sublimity
From the point of view taken in these lectures, the attempt to make sublimity central to reflection on the human future is as dangerous as making God, or Sin, or Truth central to such reflection. As I see it, philosophy should treat the quest for the unconditioned, the infinite, the transcendent and the sublime as a natural human tendency—one which Freud has helped us understand. We should see it, as Freud saw the sublimation of sexual desire, as a precondition for certain striking individual achievements. But we should not see it as relevant to our public, socio-political, cultural prospects.
January 26, 2026 at 3:02 PM