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On Justice and Character: Liberalism and Self-Realization in Rorty and Mill
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49
78
For an excellent discussion of these linkages and of moral beauty, see Raphael D. Allison,
"Walt Whitman, William James, and Pragmatist Aesthetics," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review v. 20 no. 1 (Summer 2002): 19-29. On the narrowness of Rorty’s conception of the aesthetic, see Shusterman, Pragmatist Aesthetics, pp. 101-106; 255-58
79
Alexander Nehamas, "The Art of Being Unselfish," Daedalus (Fall 2002), pp. 61-2, 65.
80
Cornel West is particularly perceptive on this point, arguing Dewey’s diagnosis of America's
crisis, with its debts to Emerson, as primarily cultural – that is, one of flattened individuality and fragmented community – leads them to promote education and deliberation as the means for social change. But focusing on the pedagogical and the dialogical translates into a neglect of "collective insurgency" and other "agitational" forms of social struggle.
See West, The American
Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), p. 103.
81
On this point see Gerald M. Mara and Susan L. Dovi, "Mill, Nietzsche, and the Identity of
Postmodern Liberalism," The Journal of Politics, vol. 57, no. 1 (Feb. 1995): 1-23.
82
Berlin, "John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life," p. 203. Rosenblum aptly terms such short-
lived affiliations "shifting involvements." See Rosenblum, Another Liberalism, pp. 125-51.
83
See "Religion as a Conversation-Stopper," in PSH, pp. 168-74, Rorty's review of Stephen L.
Carter's The Culture of Disbelief.
84
The exemplars here for private philosophizing are Derrida and Proust: "Proust succeeded
because he had no public ambitions" (CIS 118). Similarly, Derrida, at least on Rorty's reading, succeeded because he limited himself to "private jokes" and wrote about his "private fantasies," which, although they incidentally were about philosophers, did not try to grant them a public or political relevance. Rorty has in mind here Derrida's The Post Card from Socrates to Freud and Beyond, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987). See CIS, chapter 6. He puts this work in the same category as Tristram Shandy, Finnegan’s Wake, and Remembrance of Things Past (127fn). Nietzsche and Heidegger, by contrast, err in thinking their thoughts have a wider applicability beyond their personal narratives of self-creation. Despite their presuppositions to the contrary, Rorty thinks liberals should read Nietzsche and Heidegger the same way we read Proust (See CIS 96-121).
85
Qtd. in Nehamas, "The Art of Being Unselfish," p. 68.
86
Pragmatism, p. 510.
87
Anderson, “Pragmatism and Character,” pp. 293-297.
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49
78
For an excellent discussion of these linkages and of moral beauty, see Raphael D. Allison,
"Walt Whitman, William James, and Pragmatist Aesthetics," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review v.
20 no. 1 (Summer 2002): 19-29. On the narrowness of Rorty’s conception of the aesthetic, see
Shusterman, Pragmatist Aesthetics, pp. 101-106; 255-58
79
Alexander Nehamas, "The Art of Being Unselfish," Daedalus (Fall 2002), pp. 61-2, 65.
80
Cornel West is particularly perceptive on this point, arguing Dewey’s diagnosis of America's
crisis, with its debts to Emerson, as primarily cultural – that is, one of flattened individuality and
fragmented community – leads them to promote education and deliberation as the means for
social change. But focusing on the pedagogical and the dialogical translates into a neglect of
"collective insurgency" and other "agitational" forms of social struggle.
See West, The American
Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1989), p. 103.
81
On this point see Gerald M. Mara and Susan L. Dovi, "Mill, Nietzsche, and the Identity of
Postmodern Liberalism," The Journal of Politics, vol. 57, no. 1 (Feb. 1995): 1-23.
82
Berlin, "John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life," p. 203. Rosenblum aptly terms such short-
lived affiliations "shifting involvements." See Rosenblum, Another Liberalism, pp. 125-51.
83
See "Religion as a Conversation-Stopper," in PSH, pp. 168-74, Rorty's review of Stephen L.
Carter's The Culture of Disbelief.
84
The exemplars here for private philosophizing are Derrida and Proust: "Proust succeeded
because he had no public ambitions" (CIS 118). Similarly, Derrida, at least on Rorty's reading,
succeeded because he limited himself to "private jokes" and wrote about his "private fantasies,"
which, although they incidentally were about philosophers, did not try to grant them a public or
political relevance. Rorty has in mind here Derrida's The Post Card from Socrates to Freud and
Beyond, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987). See CIS, chapter 6. He
puts this work in the same category as Tristram Shandy, Finnegan’s Wake, and Remembrance of
Things Past (127fn). Nietzsche and Heidegger, by contrast, err in thinking their thoughts have a
wider applicability beyond their personal narratives of self-creation. Despite their
presuppositions to the contrary, Rorty thinks liberals should read Nietzsche and Heidegger the
same way we read Proust (See CIS 96-121).
85
Qtd. in Nehamas, "The Art of Being Unselfish," p. 68.
86
Pragmatism, p. 510.
87
Anderson, “Pragmatism and Character,” pp. 293-297.
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