Rorty On Truth

By Leo Gura - August 27, 2024

I have a deep new video coming soon about Post-Modernism. Here’s a little appetizer:

Rorty’s pragmatic definition of truth:

After Darwin it becomes very hard to say that human beings grasp the true nature of things. It’s much easier to say they’ve developed language to enable them to serve various ends: better food, better sex, better shelter, more interesting lives, and so on. As opposed to doing this thing called ‘knowing what things in themselves really are’. So, don’t ask the question: Which language gets reality right? Just ask the question: Which language serves what human purpose best?

— Richard Rorty

Pragmatism and post-modernism define truth as whatever can be justified relative to a culture, era, and people. Truth is thus not a matter of whether we got reality right but whether our language serves a certain utility or end.

According to pragmatism, “true” is an adjective which we apply to beliefs which we have sufficiently justified. And justification is relative to an audience, a culture, and other factors. We don’t have to know what truth is because we just know how to use it.

So, atomic theory is true not because that’s how nature really is but because it allows engineers to successfully manipulate matter and create useful technology and scientists to communicate successfully between each other to sustain academic institutions, publish in journals, and hold functional conferences.

What do you think about this definition of truth?

Is it true?

What is wrong with that definition of truth? What is right about it? How do you know?

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