This text may take some time to work through. Be patient.
Richard Rorty was an American philosopher who worked for much his life to support and expand upon the ideas he wrote in his early text Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. We are reading Rorty because he specifically looks to the novel as a resource to address cruelty in society. Pay particular attention to the epigraph by Milan Kundera at the beginning of the book. Also, the introduction makes your entry into the first chapter much clearer. Don't skip it.
Before reading, ask yourself, "What is contingency? What is irony? What is solidarity?" What do they have to do with literature and philosophy? The purpose of the title is to direct your attention as you read the so entitled text. You can always look up Richard Rorty on Wikipedia. What does it tell you about him there? Can you make any connections to anything that it says about him or his work on that page? How many books has he written? How is he viewed by other philosophers? What External Links from the Wikipedia page do you find helpful? I generally find the entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to be helpful.
Returning to the text, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, chapter one is only twenty pages long (pp. 3-23). What is the title of the chapter and how does it relate to the introduction? There is a shift that occurs in chapter one toward the bottom of page nine. What is the shift? How does Rorty announce the shift? Pay attention to such language. It helps you, as a reader, to get a clear picture of what is going on in the text.
Create a chart with answers to the questions in the paragraphs above. Email a digital copy of this chart to the instructor before the start of class: rtbarnha@ic.sunysb.edu
I found this digital copy available online from someone at the University of Oregon. It looks like the whole thing may be there. I haven't checked; so, I won't guarantee that this will replace the text. Even if you download it, you'll need to print out a copy so we can discuss it in class (unless you have a digital copy to on hand to review during class).
Richard Rorty was an American philosopher who worked for much his life to support and expand upon the ideas he wrote in his early text Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. We are reading Rorty because he specifically looks to the novel as a resource to address cruelty in society. Pay particular attention to the epigraph by Milan Kundera at the beginning of the book. Also, the introduction makes your entry into the first chapter much clearer. Don't skip it.
Before reading, ask yourself, "What is contingency? What is irony? What is solidarity?" What do they have to do with literature and philosophy? The purpose of the title is to direct your attention as you read the so entitled text. You can always look up Richard Rorty on Wikipedia. What does it tell you about him there? Can you make any connections to anything that it says about him or his work on that page? How many books has he written? How is he viewed by other philosophers? What External Links from the Wikipedia page do you find helpful? I generally find the entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to be helpful.
Returning to the text, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, chapter one is only twenty pages long (pp. 3-23). What is the title of the chapter and how does it relate to the introduction? There is a shift that occurs in chapter one toward the bottom of page nine. What is the shift? How does Rorty announce the shift? Pay attention to such language. It helps you, as a reader, to get a clear picture of what is going on in the text.
Create a chart with answers to the questions in the paragraphs above. Email a digital copy of this chart to the instructor before the start of class: rtbarnha@ic.sunysb.edu
I found this digital copy available online from someone at the University of Oregon. It looks like the whole thing may be there. I haven't checked; so, I won't guarantee that this will replace the text. Even if you download it, you'll need to print out a copy so we can discuss it in class (unless you have a digital copy to on hand to review during class).
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