Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope, Penguin Books, New York; 1999.

Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope, Penguin Books, New York; 1999.

 

2. Truth without Correspondence to Reality(1994)

 

"So even if there is no Way the World Is, even if there is no such thing as 'the intrinsic nature of reality', there are still causal pressures. These pressures will be described in different ways at different times and for different purposes, but they are pressures none the less."(33)

 

"And, of course, of the fact that if you don't speak a language you don't have many beliefs. Davidson thinks that you cannot have any beliefs."(45, footnote 34)

 

"We cannot, no matter how hard we try, continue to hold a belief which we have tried, and conspicuously failed, to weave together with our other beliefs into a justificatory web. No matter how much I want to believe an unjustifiable belief, I cannot will myself into doing so. The best I can do is distract my own attention from the question of why I hold certain beliefs. For most common matters of common concern, however, my community will insist that I attend to this question. So such distraction is only feasible for private obsessions, such as my conviction that some day my lucky number will win the jackpot... Inquiry and justification have lots of mutual aims, but they do not have an overarching aim called truth."(37)