070813: fascinating meta-philosophy critique, about entire tendencies in thought towards metaphysician- here a bad thing- and the ironist- generally a good thing- but I can see how he could annoy those who are searching for some kind of holistic certainty, some way of thought that is atemporal, usually given capitals whether thick or thin, according to your particular final vocabulary...
so he does not refer to my favourite philosopher, so he gets things out of Heidegger, Nietzsche, even Kant, which I do not know, so he refers to Nabokov, so he gets theory-thick on Orwell, so he valourizes the ironist and never allows enquiry, doubt, freedom to talk, any rest...
Hegel suggests fiction and poetic work will soon be surpassed by Philosophy, here Rorty argues the other way round, heartening for artists, denigration of idea thinkers and all those who believe in the value of love of wisdom. for me, suspended somewhere between these ways of being, there is always already value in both styles of life- rather than deflationary dissolving, resolving, the equation of life, I like to believe life is ambiguity to be lived and not problem to be solved...
but then I am reading Heidegger at the moment, and the only commonality in all these attitudes towards Art, is that it is Important. I hope so... I am enjoying Heidegger's ideas about art as calling forth works of art, rather than the work all building up into a catalog of art...