201 pages
English language
Published Dec. 17, 1989
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity is a 1989 book by the American philosopher Richard Rorty, based on two sets of lectures he gave at University College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In contrast to his earlier work, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Rorty mostly abandons attempts to explain his theories in analytical terms and instead creates an alternate conceptual schema to that of the "Platonists" he rejects. In this schema "truth" (as the term is used conventionally) is considered unintelligible and meaningless. The book is divided into three parts: "Contingency", "Ironism and Theory", and "Cruelty and Solidarity".
We keep re-describing history and ourselves, let's stop pretending we'll find the last best description before we die. And stop cruelly humiliating each other. There's some good stuff in here (Chapter 3 is particularly good description) but Rorty still manages to sound afraid of not being good enough despite arguing that "good enough" is all in his head.
