Rorty’s philosophy of religion

• Published in: Human affairs (Bratislava, Slovakia) Vol. 26; no. 3; p. 329
• Main Author: Višňovský, Emil
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warsaw Walter de Gruyter GmbH 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Philosophy; Religion
• ISSN: 1210-3055; 1337-401X
• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2016-0028

Richard Rorty interpreted religion as a historically constituted part of culture. As a philosopher, he sought primarily to understand religion’s socio-cultural nature and role. His approach was socio-critical, intellectually sympathetic and humanistic. The paper provides an account of Rorty’s key phases in his philosophy of religion. During phase one (the 1990s), he was primarily interested in whether, in a democratic society, religion should simply be a private matter or also one of public concern (and if so, then in what way and to what extent). During phase two (post-2000), his thinking on cultural politics developed more broadly, and he wrote about ‘romantic polytheism’ and the future of religion, etc. In his writing from phase one, he portrays himself as a ‘secular humanist’ as well as an atheist and, in his writing from phase two, as a ‘non-theist’ and ‘anti-clericalist’.