Modest Proposals

A few minutes ago, I stepped onto the deck

of the house. From there I could see and hear the water,

and everything that’s happened to me all these years.

It was hot and still. The tide was out.

No birds sang. As I leaned against the railing

a cobweb touched my forehead.

It caught in my hair. No one can blame me that I turned

and went inside. There was no wind. The sea

was dead calm. I hung the cobweb from the lampshade. 

Where I watch it shudder now and then when my breath

touches it. A fine thread. Intricate.

Before long, before anyone realizes,

I’ll be gone from here.

Anonymous asked: Do you like Rorty?

Yeah, I like most of his stuff. You have to understand, though, that he has many ‘one-liners,’ as it were. And these one-liners are false in what they explicitly affirm but true in what they implicitly deny. Many of his most insightful comments can be easily caricatured as a result.

He’s got a great critique of traditional philosophy in Nature without Mirrors and generally an anti-metaphyical approach to everything. For more pragmatists who agree with Rorty’s anti-metaphysical tendencies but do constructive work, I’d recomment Robert Brandom, Donald Davidson, and especially Jeffrey Stout.
 
The only thing I’d disagree with him about is his political views, although he is a socialist democrat (not in the common sense, but a qualified philosophical sense). I like his critiques of communitarianism, although Rorty is mostly a liberal. For a very useful view of the dichotomy, and a different way to approach the question of politics, see Jeffrey Stout’s Ethics After Babel. 

Anonymous asked: What do you think of Francis Schaeffer's book The God who is There?

In honesty I haven’t read any Francis Schaeffer.

I would love to respond, but I am sorry I cannot be of any use to you in this regard.