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The Library of Living Philosophers

Richard Rorty

by Gideon Calder

For generations, and especially since Nietzsche, philosophers have been calling other philosophers they don’t like ‘metaphysicians’, while declaring themselves purged of such dubious tendencies. Opinions vary about what exactly is wrong with ‘metaphysics’. For some, it is just unverifiable speculation. For others, there is a moral or political imperative to avoid its spurious generalizations. Others say that, never mind trying to describe it, the very notion of ‘ultimate reality’ is nonsensical in the first place.

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