My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence.
Richard RortyRead
Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy evolves through creativity rather than strict logic.
Richard Rorty suggests that the advancement of philosophy relies more on the ability to think creatively and imaginatively than on adhering to rigid logical frameworks. This perspective values the role of innovative thought in fostering new ideas and concepts within philosophical inquiry.
Themes
PhilosophyImaginationCreativityProgressThought
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the future of philosophical thought.
More from Richard Rorty
All quotes βTo say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
Richard RortyRead
The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.
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National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Richard RortyRead
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
Richard RortyRead
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Richard RortyRead
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