Contingencia, ironía y solidaridad

The philosopher Richard Rorty argues that thinkers like Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein have allowed societies to see themselves as historical contingencies rather than as expressions of an underlying ahistorical nature or as the realization of suprahistorical goals. This ironic perspective on the human condition is extremely valuable on a private level, although it cannot anticipate the social or political aims of liberalism. What can achieve this, according to the author, is not philosophy, but literature, which is capable of fostering a genuine sense of human solidarity, especially through novelists like Orwell and Nabokov. A truly liberal culture, with a clear awareness of its historical contingency, would merge the private and individual freedom of this ironic philosophical perspective with the public project of human solidarity engendered by the intelligence and sensitivity of great writers. From philosophy to literary criticism to social theory, the broad frame of reference of this book contains equally complex conclusions and reveals Richard Rorty as a singularly subtle theorist, whose writing will appeal to both academic and non-academic readers.