From finding to making

Jacques Rancière, Richard Rorty, and the antifoundationalist story of progress

pp. 161-189

in: Ulf Schulenberg, Marxism, pragmatism, and postmetaphysics, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

Jacques Rancière plays a crucial role as regards the attempt to make the idea of an antifoundationalist story of progress, as well as the notion of a postmetaphysical culture, look attractive. In La Leçon d"Althusser (1973) and Le Philosophe et ses pauvres (1983) he advances a critique of traditional (Platonic) philosophy and of Louis Althusser's structuralist Marxism that should be regarded as an important part of the antifoundationalist story of progress. He combines antifoundationalism, antiessentialism, and antirepresentationalism in a stimulating way. In this chapter, Schulenberg discusses Rancière's version of topographical and horizontal critique. The first part analyzes his critique of Platonism and of Althusser, whereas the second part highlights affinities between Richard Rorty's scenario of a poeticized culture and the Rancièrian aesthetic regime of art. Moreover, Schulenberg calls attention to some important differences between Rorty and Rancière's versions of anti-Platonism.