Philosophy and The Mirror of Nature

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (published in 1979) is a book by American philosopher Richard Rorty. It attempts to dissolve so-called philosophical problems instead of solving them by exposing them as pseudo-problems that only exist in the language-game of Analytic philosophy. In a pragmatist gesture, Rorty claims that philosophy must get past these pseudo-problems if it is to be productive.

The work was seen to be somewhat "controversial" upon its publication. It had the greatest success among students of analytic philosophy professors, who caused it to sell out within the first days of its publication; the students enjoyed it for being an alternative to the current analytic philosophy dogmas, in a period in which the analytic departments were tightening up on the dogmas even more.

Read more about Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature:  Contents

Famous quotes containing the words philosophy and, philosophy, mirror and/or nature:

    I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk and leaves; but I shall perhaps be enabled to speak with more precision and authority by and by,—if philosophy and sentiment are not buried under a multitude of details.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    When Philosophy with its abstractions paints grey in grey, the freshness and life of youth has gone, the reconciliation is not a reconciliation in the actual, but in the ideal world.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    A novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews [sic] the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.
    Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)

    We can paint unrealistic pictures of the juggler—displaying her now as a problem-free paragon of glamour and now as a modern hag. Or we can see in the juggler a real person who strives to overcome the obstacles that nature and society put in her path and who does so with vigor and determination.
    Faye J. Crosby (20th century)