Rorty's rebels

Why do parents support anti-parent education? | Gene Edward Veith

Associated Press/Photo by Hasan Sarbakhshian

Richard Rorty, who died in 2007, was a major postmodernist philosopher who believed that since objective truth is unknowable, all we can do is pursue pragmatic goals. He was a popular professor at Wellesley, Princeton, the University of Virginia, and Stanford. In an essay titled "Universality and Truth" published in Rorty and His Critics, he argued that because there is no universal truth, all education is indoctrination. In making this case, he candidly admitted his agenda and that of many of his colleagues.

"The fundamentalist parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire 'American liberal establishment' is engaged in a conspiracy," Rorty wrote. "The parents have a point. Their point is that we liberal teachers no more feel in a symmetrical communication situation when we talk with bigots than do kindergarten teachers talking with their students."