Famous Quotes by Richard Rorty

“There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.”

Truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with.

Philosophers are not in the business of finding timeless truths. They are in the business of clarifying what we mean when we say something is true.

The task of philosophy is not to discover the truth, but to come up with the best way to talk about it.

Our situation is not to be taken as a problem to be solved, but as an arena in which we have to find ways to get along with each other.

Philosophy should not be concerned with the question of whether we know reality as it is. Instead, it should be concerned with how we talk about and act in the world.

Irony, for me, is the realization that our practices and ways of understanding are contingent, and yet we have to live as though they are necessary.

A better society is one in which the practices of the people who constitute it are better understood and made more inclusive.

To be a realist is to recognize that, whatever our best theories may be, they will never have a privileged connection to the real world.

The only thing that makes a philosopher a philosopher is the attempt to deal with philosophical questions, not the answers he gives.

Liberalism is about keeping your mind open, accepting that people might live in ways that are very different from the way you live.

Solidarity can’t be built on shared beliefs. It has to be built on shared hope and shared suffering.

The world is better off without philosophers who think they have found the ultimate answer to everything.

A liberal society is not a perfect society, but it is the only one where human beings can form themselves freely.

Philosophy is the attempt to bring some sense of order into a world full of contingency.

Human beings should be judged by what they do, not by what they think.

The great value of philosophy is not in the answers it provides but in the problems it makes us realize we need to deal with.

Truth is not the kind of thing you discover; it’s the kind of thing you make.

We should give up the search for the 'ultimate' explanation of reality, and settle for a pragmatic approach to dealing with the problems that face us.

We don't need a theory of knowledge. We need a way of talking about things that makes our lives easier and more meaningful.

Philosophy, in the end, is a matter of keeping the conversation going.

The only way to make sense of life is to make it meaningful to you, and to help others do the same.