Richard Rorty's post-metaphysical social hope

Abstract

This paper, which uses Richard Rorty's philosophy as a starting point, is oriented by two questions: What connection can metaphysics have with pain and social hope, if it is supposed that traditional metaphysics eliminates the contingent elements of its own discourse, only to keep the essential, the substantial, that which is beyond all body and time? And, can the search for truth be the origin of pain, discrimination, and abuse? Rorty says that if the word "love" seems too contaminated or archaic, it can be substituted by Annette Baier's concept of "appropriated confidence". Baier sees family as a model for the political and moral community, more that the classroom, the court of justice of the supermarket. The confidence that the children have towards their mothers is where the moral scale starts. Following Rorty's line of thought, developed throughout this paper, it is believed that these "anti-representationalist", contingent, ironic, anti-essentialist tools, are more adequate to fight against pain, and can even serve the genesis of the personal auto-creation discourse, even though it does not offer us the certainty of metaphysics.