- Source: Ironism
Ironism (n. ironist; from Greek: eiron, eironeia) is a term coined by Richard Rorty for the concept that allows rhetorical scholars to actively participate in political practices. It is usually described as a modernist literary intellectual's project of fashioning the best possible self through continual redescription. With this concept, Rorty argues for a contingency that rejects necessity and universality in relation to the ideas of language, self, and community.
Concept
In his writings, Rorty cited three conditions that constitute the ironist perspective that show how the concept undercuts the rationality of conservative, reactionary, and totalitarian positions by maintaining the contingency of all beliefs:
She has radical and continuing doubts about the final vocabulary she currently uses, because she has been impressed by other vocabularies, vocabularies taken as final by people or books she has encountered;
She realizes that argument phrased in her present vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve these doubts;
Insofar as she philosophizes about her situation, she does not think that her vocabulary is closer to reality than others, that it is in touch with a power not herself.
In Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Rorty argues that Proust, Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger, Derrida, and Nabokov, among others, all exemplify ironism to different extents. It is also said that ironism and liberalism are compatible, particularly if such liberalism has been altered by pragmatic reductionism.
References
Rorty, Richard. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Bacon, Michael. "A Defense of Liberal Ironism." Res Publica. 11.4 (2005): pp 403–423.
Rolfe, Gary. "Judgements without rules: towards a postmodern ironist concept of research validity." Nursing Inquiry. 13.1 (2006): pp. 7–15.
