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contrast, Rorty's liberalism is literally indefensible. (The hero in his liberal
culture is the strong poet, who is not required to argue for his vision.)
It
seems not to be a matter of concern to Rorty that his liberalism is inde–
fensible, perhaps, one might speculate, because of his remarkably
complacent American feeling that it is essentially unthreatened and can
take care of itsel£ A European like Kolakowski, knowing at first hand the
reality of totalitarianism, could not possibly assume that liberal culture
does not need to be defended.
The future, for Rorty, apparently holds no prospect of trouble. It al–
lows him to conclude that it is a matter of indifference whatever people
in a liberal society decide to call the truth. The following passage from
Contingency, Irony and Solidarity
is notorious and often quoted by his crit–
ICS:
It is central to the idea of a liberal society that, in respect to words as
opposed to force, anything goes. This openmindedness should not be
fostered because as Scripture teaches, truth is great and will prevail, or
because as Milton suggests, truth will always win in a free and open
encounter. It should be fostered for its own sake.
A liberal society is one
which is content to call "true" whatever the upshot ofsuch encounters turns out
to be.
Rorty is right to dismiss the scriptural view that truth will always pre–
vail, but it is nothing short of amazing that he is willing to accept as
"true" whatever the reality might be. What if the outcome is barbarism,
what are the resources in liberal culture for countering it? Perhaps Rorty
believes that circumscribing "anything goes" to the realm of expression is
sufficient protection against cruelty. But the very fact that he is not will–
ing to give the unconditional license of "anything goes" to actors (as
distinguished from worders) suggest that we
should not
be content to call
true, "whatever the upshot turns out to be," especially if "truth" turns
out to be the verbal representation of the noxious force that he wishes to
proscribe.
Irony is a negative condition or attitude: it exists in a relation of
doubt or quizzicality to some positive assertion "taken as final." A culture
needs something more than irony to provide it with values and with the
inner strength to resist barbarism. Rorty's account of our moral lives pre–
cludes not only any and all appeals to universal standards, it also refuses to
give credence to the appeal to "something inside" in us:
