1. THINKING WITH FRASER ABOUT RORTY, FEMINISM, AND PRAGMATISM.
- Author
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Fritzman, J. M.
- Subjects
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PRAGMATISM , *FEMINISM , *SOCIAL movements , *IDEALISM , *THEORY of knowledge , *REALISM - Abstract
This article criticizes philosopher Richard Rorty's pragmatism. Until recently, Rorty had not addressed the conjuncture of issues and concerns that constitute feminism. Feminists have critiqued him, however, calling attention to perceived weaknesses and lapses in his pragmatism. Rorty's pragmatic impulse, in contrast, consists of an impatience with differences that do not make a difference and a distaste for baroque invention and for useless epicycles, for whatever does not get to the point. The invisible hand conception attempts to bring together the Romantic and pragmatic impulses by merely asserting that they are natural partners. This view conceives of the strong poet and the utopian reform politician not as antagonists, but rather as simply two slightly different variants of the same species, whose respective activities are complementary if not strictly identical, providing grist for the same liberal democratic mill. Rorty recognizes that once an oppressed group invents a new language, its terms and categories may be commensurable neither with that group's previous self-descriptions nor with those of the oppressors. The task of a democratic-socialist-feminist pragmatism not only is to resist recognized oppressions, but also to bear witness to those oppressions that are not now recognized as such, and to testify to the possibility of still unimagined new languages that would problematize currently accepted practices and institutions.
- Published
- 1993