"The Pragmatist Approach to Education: Richard Rorty"

Rorty's approach to metaphysics is pragmatist, and thus encountering with it based on the utilitarianism and efficiency of the thoughts. Like many postmodern philosophers, he also denies the concept of truth. He uses pragmatic thoughts and modernist ideas. The rejection of the mind as a reflection of nature, anti-representativeness, anti-essence, and emphasis on language are preliminaries, which Rorty denies the truth through them. From Rorty's point of view, human beings in every situation redefine or recreate himself and this is a development, which continuously considered in both individual and social statue. Rorty divided the education into two periods: pre-university and university. In the pre-university period, there is the elements of convergence that leads man to the community. At the university and post-university levels, there are heterogeneous elements, which encourage man to individuality and self-creation. If Rorty has been able to achieve a well-defined and efficient frame for the contemporary societies by presenting neopragmatism in the field of education, is the question here. In this article at first, we will explain Rorty’s approach to education, then examine critiques of his approach to education, and in the last step, we will explain the possibility of using Rorty’s views in relation to the conditions of today’s societies. Keywords: Pragmatism, Neopragmatism, Education, Richard Rorty