Symposium introduction vocabularies of hope in place of vocabularies of critique: can rorty help us to redescribe (philosophy of) education?

ABSTRACT

This introduction outlines the rationale of the symposium 'Vocabularies of Hope in Place of Vocabularies of Critique: Can Rorty Help Us to Redescribe (Philosophy of) Education?'. In particular, it argues that, despite some early statements of Richard Rorty, he may turn out to be a particularly timely thinker in reference to debates occurring in the field of educational theory and philosophy, especially by suggesting an engagement with the latter through vocabularies of hope. Moreover, after highlighting that a valuable dialogue may be established between Rorty's stance and post-critical pedagogy, the introduction describes in broad strokes along which lines this conversation will unfold in the three papers and one response composing the symposium.

KEY WORDS:

• Richard Rorty
• post-critical pedagogy
• hope
• philosophy of education
• cultural politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It is to note that Wain correctly highlights that, if he came to revise his original rejection of any role for philosophy in education, Rorty never arrived at endorsing philosophy of education as a discipline: “The important distinction needs to be made here between writing about education philosophically and having this discipline called philosophy of education. The most recent Rorty, in fact, seems to have resolved his problems with the former but retained his problems with the latter” (Wain 2001, 173-174). Incidentally: this is one of the reasons for the parentheses present in the subtitle of this symposium.

2. I would like to thank Kai Wortmann for drawing my attention to Malecki’s article.