Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rorty
- Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
- The Cambridge Companion to Rorty
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations of Works by Rorty
- Introduction: The Unity of Richard Rorty’s Philosophy
- 1 Rorty’s Metaphilosophy: A Pluralistic Corridor
- 2 After Metaphysics: Eliminativism and the Protreptic Dilemma
- 3 Rorty and Classical Pragmatism
- 4 A Pragmatism More Ironic Than Pragmatic
- 5 Rorty and Semantic Minimalism
- 6 Returning to the Particular: Morality and the Self after Rorty
- 7 Rorty’s Political Philosophy
- 8 Tinkering with Truth, Tinkering with Difference: Rorty and (Liberal) Feminism
- 9 Rorty’s Insouciant Social Thought
- 10 Rorty and National Pride
- 11 Rorty on Religion
- 12 Rorty: Reading Continental Philosophy
- 13 Rorty’s Literary Culture: Reading, Redemption, and The Heart’s Invisible Furies
- 14 Wild Orchids
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
10 - Rorty and National Pride
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021
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Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rorty
- Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
- The Cambridge Companion to Rorty
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations of Works by Rorty
- Introduction: The Unity of Richard Rorty’s Philosophy
- 1 Rorty’s Metaphilosophy: A Pluralistic Corridor
- 2 After Metaphysics: Eliminativism and the Protreptic Dilemma
- 3 Rorty and Classical Pragmatism
- 4 A Pragmatism More Ironic Than Pragmatic
- 5 Rorty and Semantic Minimalism
- 6 Returning to the Particular: Morality and the Self after Rorty
- 7 Rorty’s Political Philosophy
- 8 Tinkering with Truth, Tinkering with Difference: Rorty and (Liberal) Feminism
- 9 Rorty’s Insouciant Social Thought
- 10 Rorty and National Pride
- 11 Rorty on Religion
- 12 Rorty: Reading Continental Philosophy
- 13 Rorty’s Literary Culture: Reading, Redemption, and The Heart’s Invisible Furies
- 14 Wild Orchids
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
Summary
In Achieving Our Country, Richard Rorty criticizes what he calls the cultural Left for its “Gothic” account of American history, an account that is haunted by specters of power and hypocrisy and that condemns the United States for atrocities for which no future acts can atone. He contrasts this account to the pride the older reformist Left had in the United States and its commitment to fulfilling its still-unachieved ideals of freedom and equality. This paper argues that in relation to a morally burdened past Americans need to learn to practice a form of cognitive dissonance, learning to elide neither its failures nor its possibilities and progress.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Rorty , pp. 222 - 242Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021