Richard Rorty
philosopher · 1 mention across 1 reading
In this course
Richard Rorty's neo-pragmatist rejection of the "mirror of nature" — the idea that knowledge represents reality as it is — offers a crucial philosophical foundation for understanding how computational systems model and construct rather than simply reflect the world. The course readings invoke Rorty's emphasis on contingency and solidarity to challenge deterministic narratives about AI and to reframe algorithmic systems not as neutral tools discovering truth but as culturally embedded vocabularies that reshape social reality. His work enables a critical distance from techno-utopian claims of objectivity, grounding the seminar's analysis of how machine learning systems are always already embedded in human purposes and power relations.
Background
Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, the Kenan Professor of Humanities at the University of Virginia, and a professor of comparative literature at Stanford University. Among his most influential books are Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989).
Wikipedia →Mentioned in 1 reading
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