Richard Rorty’s Anti Representational Theory of Knowledge and Its Epistemological Implications

Abstract

The process of attaining knowledge has been misconceived by many scholars due to the disagreements that surrounds the subject matter, right from the ancient period to the contemporary period hence, the question of what is knowledge, how can one know, the origin and justification of knowledge became cardinal to the theory of knowledge. It is on the basis of this that Rorty disagreed with the representationists’ accounts that the mind mirrors reality and interpret it independently. The problem revolves primarily on the position of knowledge that conceived the mind as the sole determinant of what qualifies as knowledge, the idea that knowledge is a linguistic affair, the refutation of foundational knowledge and the denial of objective knowledge. The search for knowledge and certainty should be devoid of the mindset of segmenting the subject and objects of knowledge. Adequate knowledge must necessarily incorporate the subject and the objects of knowledge which are the necessary pillars of knowledge. If certitude in knowledge would be attained the subject and the object must be seen as correlates. Foundational knowledge cannot be completely jettisoned as it creates a line of departure for particular significance. Therefore, the subject-object dichotomy in epistemology should be abolished to enable new and useful ideas if the quest for certainty in knowledge would be attained. The efficacy of any knowledge claim according to this paper is on the ability to correlate the subject and the object. Knowledge claims must accommodate the two basic pillars of knowledge (the knower and the known). One should not be robbed to pay the other because such attempt will only lead to futility in knowledge.

Keywords: Representationalism, Anti Representationalism, Foundationalism, Correlatism.