My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence.
Richard RortyRead
Truthfulness under oath is, by now, a matter of our civic religion, our relation to our fellow citizens rather than our relation to a nonhuman power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truthfulness in society is a fundamental civic duty that reflects our responsibilities to each other rather than to a higher power.
In this quote, Richard Rorty emphasizes the importance of truthfulness in legal and civic contexts. He argues that the commitment to honesty, particularly when it comes to giving testimony under oath, should be viewed as a vital social contract among people in a community, rather than merely a devout obligation to a divine entity. This perspective shifts the focus from religious or spiritual considerations to the interpersonal bonds that sustain a democratic society.
Themes
TruthfulnessCivic DutyHonestyOathSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a courtroom when discussing the importance of integrity in legal proceedings.
More from Richard Rorty
All quotes →To say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
Richard RortyRead
The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.
Richard RortyRead
Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.
Richard RortyRead
National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Richard RortyRead
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
Richard RortyRead
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