ISSN: 2641-9130
Authors: Do Kien Trung and Bui Van Mua*
People, as cognitive entities, do not have experience if there is not language that takes the role of mediates matchmaking and brings them experience. It also means that the use of language plays a decisive role in the human experience’s meaning and in the decision in real life. Based on Wittgenstein’s standpoint of the role of language, Rorty mentions that the symbols of life on transcendental matters such as religion or non-historical rational foundation – which are formed by the consciousness on the transcendent or the foundation – must be proved to be meaningless and categorized as matters of general political-cultural context, in other words, within the realm of the intersubjectivity in the community of language. He also agrees with Robert Brandom that there are no other principles if they do not belong to social standards. Social standards are the principles which are used in conversations and communications between people. The meanings, which have been made rather than found, are the meanings that given only in social discussions. When an individual describes the characteristics of an object, these characteristics are just provided by his consciousness on that object. Others cannot verify this private experience. However, that person can describe his feelings about that object to others by using the same language system in the same context. The individual experiences become the notion of the object when the intersubjectivity is established in conversation. That means the intersubjectivity creates the objectivity. Determining the existence of the self and the relationship between it and the external environment plays a vital role in shaping a thinking style of the relationship between individuals and communities, not only in the enactment of political policies but also in the interpretation of personal behavior psychologically. In this article, I will analyze one of the most controversial concepts in Richard Rorty’s views on the self-creation, the inter-subjectivity. My article has two parts: firstly, the explanation of the self-awareness of an individual on others; secondly, the standards in perception are relative and the relativity in perceiving values can be seen as a new form of nihilism.
Keywords: Richard Rorty; Intersubjectivity; Contingency of language; Community of language
