Description

In this dissertation I critically examine Richard Rorty's dismissal of the concept of

experience following the "linguistic turn". I challenge Rorty's belief that all appeals to

experience imply foundationalism and that we should focus only on language. In developing

a non-foundational account of experience I emphasize the qualities of action and meliorism

that we find in Classical Pragmatist notions of experience. I exploit Rorty's concession

that nonlinguistic experiences exist and refute Rorty's claim that these nonlinguistic

experiences remain in the private sphere of life and have no relevance to politics. Then,

examining Rorty's romanticism I observe how Rorty does not address the role that

experience plays in our ability to develop new linguistic schemes.