Kultura ironiczna w ujęciu Richarda Rorty’ego

Résumé

In his work published over 30 years ago Contingency, Irony and Solidarity, as well as in his other
contributions, Richard Rorty argued for a project of culture which can be named ironic culture.
This project grows out of Rorty’s efforts to abandon thinking dictated by the categories of traditional,
rationalistic metaphysics. Instead Rorty recommends an account of culture which comes
to terms with its own contingency. Over the course of this essay I try to expose complex relations
between the notion of ironic culture and liberal democracy, suffering and aestheticization
of culture. This opens up the space for enquiring whether the Western culture has indeed been
following the direction favoured by Rorty, as well as whether it should develop in that direction.