Philosophy: Atheism, Hope, Holy and Love

A tribute to Richard Rorty, one of America’s greatest philosophers. He died June 8th, at the age of 75. Rorty was one of the brilliant minds who broke free of Analytic Philosophy, along with MacIntyre, Quine, and others. He boldly restated the pragmatist philosophy, “shut up about Truth already, and just get something done!”

I haven’t studied a great deal of pragmatism – it still hasn’t caught on in mainstream philosophical academia. But my boss at the Ethics Center is a pragmatist, and along with my conversations with him, reading about Rorty gives me great respect for the philosophy.

Here’s one quote found twice in a recent tribute to Rorty:

“My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law.”

How beautiful it is to see, spoken so simply and clearly, this universal message of hope, holiness, and love – and from a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, nonetheless.