Vapaus ennen totuutta : Richard Rortyn liberaalien ihmisoikeuksien pragmatistinen puolustuspuhe

Authors

• Juha Käpylä
• Harri Mikkola

Abstract

The aim of this article is to represent Richard Rorty’s pragmatist contribution to the modern human rights conversation. While defending liberal human rights Rorty gives us useful insights to the dynamics of intercultural confrontations. Our aim is, first, to show how, according to Rorty, statements gain their status as Truth in a given community. Secondly, we aim to represent Rorty’s view on the ontological questions concerning human condition – namely ”what constitutes a human being?” These two questions are closely related to the political questions about human rights – how human rights (statements) are born, and how the expansion of human rights vocabulary can be justified. Rorty sees the expansion of human rights vocabulary as an evolutionary cultural change, as a victory of one vocabulary over another in a contested language game. That’s why Rorty defends free conversation as an engine for human development – and as an engine of expansion of our human rights.