conversational philosophy

is a philosophy that gives up the goal of getting things right and aims at enlarging our repertoire of individual and cultural self-descriptions.

Richard Rorty's definition, doing 'conversational philosophy' requires us 'to give up the goal of getting things right, and substitute that of enlarging our repertoire of individual and cultural self-descriptions'. (')

is concerned not with finding out what anything is 'really' like, but with helping us grow up helping to make us happier, freer, and more flexible.

This fits in with his pragmatist view that the point of philosophy 'is not to find out what anything is 'really' like, but to help us grow up to make us happier, freer, and more flexible'. (')

is concerned with being able to address a wide range of potential interlocutors and requires a sympathetic grasp of the wide range of life-stances these interlocutors might hold.

Rorty does not seem to want us to read too much into his use of the term 'conversational', but it strikes me that there is indeed a close connection term between the goal of enlarging a repertoire of descriptions and the art of conversation. Among other things, a good conversationalist ought to be able to engage and impress a wide range of potential interlocutors, which could be said to require a sympathetic grasp of the wide range of life-stances these interlocutors might hold.' (')

conversational philosophy, n.All

conversational philosophy