Pragmatism 2 questions, very urgent - Essay Example

12 May, Describe Rorty's approach to ethics, explain at least one of his practicalsuggestions for moral improvement, and then evaluate this practical suggestion. Rorty adopts a neo-pragmatic approach to ethics. Rorty’s work has invited a lot of criticism as it contradicts the conventional notion of truth. Most of the historic philosophers have understood truth as something that is static, the ultimate, perfect and eternal. Many philosophers have associated truth with God. Rorty refers to the traditional identifications of truth as “only descriptions of the world” (Fukuyama).

Rorty suggests that language should not be a sign of representation. By suggesting so, Rorty essentially wants to say that people should abandon the religion, and not worship God. Instead, human conscience, language and community should be understood as a joint outcome of luck and time according to Rorty. To put it in simple words, Rorty means to negate the existence of truth altogether. By doing so, Rorty tends to evaluate a belief on the basis of its effects instead of its causes. Rorty places more emphasis upon the association of the statements’ truth with their applicability in practical terms.

In this way, Rorty’s suggestion is necessarily a restoration of pragmatism. Rorty’s truth is more of a metaphor which provides solutions for troubles, resolves the issues and eases the tension. In reality, this may not be always so. In fact, in a vast majority of cases, people lie in order to escape temporal damage. To them, truth is devastating and demeaning. Nonetheless, the importance of truth can not be denied in any case as the ultimate effects of truth are always better than those of lie.

Truth does exist and is not just an outcome of certain events. I totally disapprove of Rorty’s atheism. Explain Rorty's view of education and discuss (in detail) at least one possible objection to Rorty's view. Rorty considers education as a means of promoting liberalism and eradicating religious fundamentalism from the heart, mind and soul of the students. In the present age, the intellectual climate is progressing towards postmodernism. Postmodernism assumes huge tendency to negate the significance of philosophy that has cultivated in the views and opinions of educationalists so far, and considers philosophy as a downtrodden concept that finds no application in the progressing mood of the society.

The sort of education Rorty proposes goes excellently with the postmodern culture and projects the values and inculcates the beliefs of postmodernism in the students. Rorty’s philosophy of education is directed at formulating a liberal utopia and nurturing a liberal ironist. In Rorty’s educational framework, there is no breathing space for the philosophy that lays the foundation of conventional educational setup. Rorty’s views conflict with the religiosity of people. Through his teaching, Rorty tends to deprive people of their religiosity and instead, make them develop a personality which projects liberalism.

In a society educated by Rorty, people can not be expected to stand up in favor of what is right or what is truth, because truth is something Rorty already disapproves of as discusses before. Rorty considers religiosity as fanaticism, which is wrong! If a child is educated on the pattern of Rorty’s philosophy, he/she will find variation in the school teaching and the nurturing he/she gets at home. This is likely to spoil the personality of a child, and he/she would not only suffer from a loss in the world hereafter, but would also be deprived of spiritual contentment in this world.

Works Cited: Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.