O historicismo de Rorty: um perigo para a civilização oriental?

Abstract

Rorty has been for several times characterized as the most revolutionary and destructive among the American philosophers. This portrait seems to be confirmed by its adoption of a radical historicism which might have been understood as equivalent to the abandon of all form of rationalism. In these terms, not surprisingly, it becomes a perfect example of what exponents of the old epistemological group (from Popper to Devitt) scandalizedly qualify as "threats to the western civilization". In this context, the proposed urgent task is to evaluate the real dimension of Rortyan challenge to contemporary philosophy: would his assault on orthodoxy (against Kant, particularly) be really appropriate? Would it be more consistent than what is affirmed through rationalist alternatives? My intention is to face these questions and point what is for me a Rorty's failure concerning the comprehension of rationalist project.