Rorty’s philosophy of religion 1

Abstract: Richard Rorty interpreted religion as a historically constituted part of culture. As a philosopher, he sought primarily to understand religion’s socio-cultural nature and role. His approach was socio-critical, intellectually sympathetic and humanistic. The paper provides an account of Rorty’s key phases in his philosophy of religion. During phase one (the 1990s), he was primarily interested in whether, in a democratic society, religion should simply be a private matter or also one of public concern (and if so, then in what way and to what extent). During phase two (post-2000), his thinking on cultural politics developed more broadly, and he wrote about ‘romantic polytheism’ and the future of religion, etc. In his writing from phase one, he portrays himself as a ‘secular humanist’ as well as an atheist and, in his writing from phase two, as a ‘non-theist’ and ‘anti-clericalist’.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Rorty’s philosophy of religion 1 ; volume:26 ; number:3 ; year:2016 ; pages:329-339 ; extent:11 ; Human affairs ; 26, Heft 3 (2016), 329-339 (gesamt 11)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Višňovský, Emil

Further information

• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2016-0028
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2404271541049.949888070464
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:53 AM CEST