"The picture which holds traditional philosophy captive is that of the mind as a great mirror, containing various representations--some accurate, some not--and capable of being studied by pure, non-empirical methods."
— Rorty, Richard (1931-2007)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Princeton
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Date
1979
Metaphor
"The picture which holds traditional philosophy captive is that of the mind as a great mirror, containing various representations--some accurate, some not--and capable of being studied by pure, non-empirical methods."
Metaphor in Context
It is pictures rather than propositions, metaphors rather than statements, which determine most of our philosophical convictions. The picture which holds traditional philosophy captive is that of the mind as a great mirror, containing various representations--some accurate, some not--and capable of being studied by pure, non-empirical methods. Without the notion of the mind as mirror, the notion of knowledge as accuracy of representation would not have suggested itself. Without this latter notion, the strategy common to Descartes and Kant--getting more accurate representations by inspecting, repairing, and polishing the mirror, so to speak--would not have made sense. Without this strategy in mind, recent claims that philosophy could consist of 'conceptual analysis' or 'phenomenological analysis' or 'explication of meanings' or examination of the 'logic of our language' or of 'the structure of the constituting activity of consciousness' would not have made sense.
(p. 12)
(p. 12)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; found again in Ayer's Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations
Date of Entry
12/05/2003
Date of Review
06/26/2007
