Richard Rorty was an American philosopher associated with the pragmatic school of thought and known for his challenges to traditional philosophy. His contention that "truth is made rather than found" is a fundamental aspect of his philosophical outlook and is articulated in works such as "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature" and "Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity."
Rorty's perspective is a departure from the conventional philosophical viewpoint that truth is something out there—a correspondence between our statements and objective reality. He argues against the idea that there is an intrinsic nature of truth that philosophy or science can discover. Instead, Rorty suggests that truths are constructed by communities and are contingent upon the vocabularies and practices of those communities.
For Rorty, language does not mirror reality but serves as a tool that humans use to cope with the world and to cooperate with one another. Consequently, what is considered 'true' in a given historical or cultural context is a result of the language and consensus of the time rather than a timeless discovery of a reality that exists independently of human thought.
This view of truth is aligned with Rorty's pragmatism, which he inherits from philosophers like John Dewey and William James. In this pragmatic framework, the value of a belief is in its usefulness rather than its correspondence with some objective reality. Rorty extends this to suggest that "truth" should be understood in terms of what is good for us to believe, emphasizing the practical consequences and the utility of beliefs.
Moreover, Rorty's anti-essentialism implies that he rejects the idea that entities have inherent properties that define their essence. This extends to his stance on truth; there is no essence of 'truth' to be discovered. Heavily influenced by Darwinian thought, Rorty views knowledge and truth as products of human evolution, tools that have proven advantageous for survival and flourishing rather than reflections of an external reality.
Rorty also challenges the philosophical quest for certainty, a tradition he traces back to Descartes and Kant. He suggests that this quest is misguided because it assumes that there are foundations upon which knowledge can be securely built—foundations that Rorty argues do not exist. Instead, he encourages philosophers to turn away from the problems of epistemology and the preoccupation with truth and to focus on the conversation of mankind, the social practice of justification and the creation of a more liberal society.
His relativistic and anti-foundationalist stance on truth has led to extensive debates in philosophical circles. Critics have argued that his perspective leads to relativism, where any belief system could be considered as 'true' as any other, undermining the possibility of critiquing unjust or oppressive belief systems. Rorty counters that critique is still possible within a given community's standards and that progress can be made through dialogue and the exchange of ideas.
In sum, Richard Rorty's statement "Truth is made rather than found" encapsulates his belief in the social construction of truth and his challenge to the traditional correspondence theory of truth. He promotes a view of truth as a human creation, contingent on historical and cultural contexts, and rejects the notion of objective truths existing independently of human practices. His philosophy calls for a pragmatic reevaluation of truth, focusing on the utility of beliefs and their role in fostering social cooperation and progress rather than on their supposed correspondence to an external reality.
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