Seize the Means of Community

When we consider Richard Rorty, especially through the lens of his work in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, we find ourselves engaging with a philosopher whose ideas seem to resist the very notion of foundational truths. This is not a rejection for the sake of nihilism but rather an invitation to view human knowledge, identity, and solidarity as contingent—shaped by circumstance, language, and historical context. But what does it mean to live in a world where nothing is truly foundational? And how might this fit into the Communitarium Project’s broader goals?

We can begin by exploring several key concepts from Rorty: contingency, irony, solidarity, and final vocabularies. Each of these offers us a way of understanding how human beings make sense of the world—and, more importantly, how we might reimagine our communities through the practice of shared, adaptable meaning-making.

Richard Rorty | The Communitarium Wiki

Contingency

Rorty urges us to embrace contingency, recognizing that our languages, beliefs, and identities are not eternal truths but products of particular histories and cultures. Everything we think and say is contingent on the circumstances we happen to find ourselves in. This is a powerful concept: it frees us from the need to search for absolute truths, but it also calls into question the very foundations upon which we build our lives.

How might we live if we take this seriously? What if we accept that our sense of reality is always subject to change, always open to reinterpretation? In the context of the Communitarium Project, this concept of contingency becomes central to understanding how communities might evolve—flexible, adaptive, and constantly re-creating shared meaning. The question is: How can we work with contingency in a way that enriches, rather than destabilizes, our collective efforts?

Contingency in Rorty |The Communitarium Wiki

Irony

For Rorty, irony is the attitude of recognizing that one's own most deeply held beliefs are contingent and, therefore, open to revision. The ironist is someone who understands that the words and frameworks they rely on are no more grounded in eternal truth than anyone else’s. This constant awareness of contingency creates a space for humility but also for creativity. The ironist is always ready to rethink and redescribe, open to new possibilities for understanding the world.

But here, we begin to see a difference between Rorty's ironist and the kind of community-based engagement envisioned by the Communitarium. The ironist, as Rorty conceives of them, often operates at an individual level—a kind of intellectual solitude. In contrast, the Communitarium seeks to embed this kind of reflective, ironic stance within the fabric of community life, moving from individual redescription to a collective reimagining of shared vocabularies.

Could we, as a community, become collective ironists? What would that look like in practice?

Irony In Rorty | The Communitarium Wiki

Solidarity

Rorty's vision of solidarity is something that emerges not from shared access to universal truths but from the shared experience of suffering and empathy. In his view, we build solidarity by imagining ourselves in the shoes of others and using language to create common ground. This is a fragile form of solidarity—contingent, like everything else, on the continued resonance of shared vocabularies and cultural empathy.

Yet here again, the Communitarium Project seeks to build on Rorty's foundation. If Rorty’s solidarity seems vulnerable to the shifting sands of language, how might we structure communities that can maintain solidarity even as vocabularies evolve? This is where the idea of embedded practices—rituals, schmooze-level interactions, and ongoing collective meaning-making—comes into play. Solidarity, in the Communitarium, is not just about feeling with others in moments of shared understanding; it is about co-creating and continually nurturing the very frameworks that make solidarity possible.

How might these practices take root in everyday community life? Could such a form of solidarity become durable even as everything else remains contingent?

Solidarity in Rorty | The Communitarium Wiki

Final Vocabularies

Rorty introduces the idea of final vocabularies—the terms and descriptions that anchor our understanding of the world, terms we are often unwilling or unable to question without losing a sense of who we are. The ironist, of course, is always aware that these final vocabularies are provisional, that they too are contingent. But for many, these vocabularies feel foundational, non-negotiable.

In the Communitarium, however, we might ask: How do we maintain a community that recognizes the contingent nature of final vocabularies while still preserving the coherence of shared meaning? How do we prevent these vocabularies from becoming static, while ensuring they are robust enough to hold the community together?

This tension—between the necessity of shared vocabularies and the recognition of their contingency—lies at the heart of the Communitarium’s vision for adaptive, creative community-building.

Final Vocabularies in Rorty | The Communitarium Wiki

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In the next post, we will delve deeper into Rorty’s notion of solidarity and begin to explore how the Communitarium Project expands on it.