罗蒂的话语策略与新实用主义的崛起

Rorty's Discursive Strategies as a Key Factor in the Rise of Neo-pragmatism

作为哲学家,新实用主义理论创始人理查德·罗蒂从未摆脱争议。但即便是罗蒂最为严厉的论敌也不得不承认他的修辞能力出类拔萃。本文指出:罗蒂哲学书写运用的并非是一般意义上的修辞技巧,而是将常规修辞技巧以一种非常规的方式运用到宏观语境,使之获得某种方法论意义上的升华而演化成的话语策略,包括"强势误读""再描述"及"平行对照"在内的话语策略的巧妙而广泛的运用。这些话语策略对新实用主义理论的发明、发展、壮大居功厥伟,是该理论在主流哲学家的重重围堵下迅速成长为当代最有影响的思想流派之一的关键因素。

Richard Rorty may have been evaluated differently by different people,yet even his harshest critics tend to find his mastery of rhetoric peerless. We argue in this article that in his days Rorty was by no means just a philosophical rhetor of superb eloquence. Rather,in a highly unconventional manner he deployed conventional rhetorical techniques to the macro-context of philosophizing,methodologically transfiguring these otherwise quotidian techniques into some grand strategies of discourse. His masterful employment of strategies such as "strong misreading","re-describing"and "contrastively juxtaposing"went a long way in enabling him to justify his unique agenda of philosophical invention,to ward off the critical onslaught from almost all mainstream philosophers,and to ensure,in the final analysis,the rise of his brand of pragmatism as one of the most influential 20 th-century schools of thought. Rorty' s case thus offers an illuminating cross-disciplinary perspective on rhetoric' s scope of application and on the social-cultural functions which rhetoric has been performing,significantly deepening our understanding of the mechanisms through which rhetorical effects are produced.