Event overview
Visual Cultures Guest Lecture Series
"The Infinite is Losing its Charm": Richard Rorty's Philosophy of Religion
In the final years of his life, the attention of the American philosopher Richard Rorty (1931-2007) turned increasingly towards the nature of religious belief. However, Rorty's stance towards religion oscillated between two forms of critique which he characterised as 'pragmatic' and 'therapeutic'. In this lecture I explore the conflict between these two kinds of critique by referring back to debates amongst the Left Hegelians of the 1840s. I then show how this conflict affected the thinking of Rorty, who liked to consider himself as an inheritor of Left Hegelianism. In particular, it damages his attempt to construe religion in terms of our hope for a just and peaceable human future.
PETER DEWS
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex. He has published on many aspects of continental philosophy, from German Idealism to post-structuralism. His latest book is "The Idea of Evil" (Blackwell, 2007). In the 1980s his book "The Logics of Disintegration" introduced Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard and Lacan to UK readers interested in philosophy.
Chaired by Prof. Alex Düttmann
Dates & times
Date | Time | Add to calendar |
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7 May 2009 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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