Abstract

In Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (PMN) Rorty opposes representationalism about mind and language, and interprets Davidson as an ally. Yet Davidson insists that language and thought depend on speakers taking themselves to be subject to an objective standard of correctness, beyond themselves. Isn’t this mirroring, in some reasonable reading of Rorty’s metaphor? Yes, in my view, and there is more of a tension between PMN and Davidson than Rorty realises. But pragmatists can regard this objective standard as an artefact of our own linguistic practices, rather than as a norm imposed by the world in some stronger sense. In this piece I discuss the genealogy of such a hand-made mirror with reference to Davidson, Brandom, and Rorty himself.