Richard Rorty: Outgrowing Modern Nihilism

1.      The Great Debate

Why Rorty?

Spiritual Disjointedness

The Book

2.      Overcoming Nihilism

Nietzsche: The “Uncanniest of All Guests”

Heidegger: When the Hammer Breaks

Taylor: Modern Moral Sources

Dreyfus and Kelly: “Whooshing” Up

Rorty the Nihilist?

Three Cases

Conclusion

3.      The Concept of Redemption

Essentialism and Edification

Romantic Polytheism

The Religious Impulse

Rise of the Literary Culture

Liberal Democracy

A New Self-Image

Religious Nostalgia

Conclusion

4.      Averting Nihilism                     

Egotism

The Private-Public Distinction

Self-Creation and Solidarity

Self-Enlargement

Nihilism and Egotism

Post-Metaphysical Redemption

Conclusion

5.      Pragmatist Transcendence

The Ambition to Transcendence

Vertical Transcendence and the Onto-Theological Tradition

Horizontal Transcendence and Pragmatism

Strong and Weak Transcendence

Three Concerns

Conclusion

6.      The Nihilisms of Our Time

Tracy Llanera is Assistant Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and faculty affiliate at the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. She works at the intersection of philosophy of religion, social and political philosophy, and pragmatism, specializing on the topics of nihilism, conversion, and the politics of language.