In chapter 8, Rorty discusses George Orwell's book 1984. Rorty is especially concerned to combat readings of 1984 suggesting that the book's main point is that we need to resist contingency and irony, and must instead embrace some kind of metaphysical realism. In the video, I am especially concerned with the question whether Rorty doesn't go too far; whether, in his attempt to get rid of metaphysical realism, he doesn't throw overboard the conceptual resources we need to distinguish non-totalitarian from totalitarian society, journalism from ideology, Orwell himself from the apologists of Stalin.
Literature mentioned are two articles from "Rorty and his Critics", edited by Robert Brandom; chapter 12, "Freedom, Cruelty, and Truth: Rorty versus Orwell" by James Conant; and "Response to Conant" by Richard Rorty.
This video covers pages 169 to 188 of the book.
Victor Gijsbers teaches philosophy at Leiden University in the Netherlands. This video is part of his lecture series on Richard Rorty's Contingency, Irony and Solidarity: ru-vid.com/group/PL8Nxd4OXpzqn6ezWdJ5_zQzeQg5Dh-Kyz
7 июн 2021
