Common sense rests on a “final vocabulary”—pre-approved truths that guide judgment without scrutiny. (This is profoundly consequential.)
The ironist, as Richard Rorty suggests, sees these as provisional, not permanent, exposing the fragility beneath moral certainties.
Yet irony is not metaphysical rebellion; it avoids replacing clichés with new absolutes (i.e. truth). Instead, it dwells in contingency, endlessly reframing. This creates tension: rootlessness for some, freedom for others.
Rorty’s Ironists aren’t relativists; they are allergic to pretended absolutes. Their challenge is to live without illusions, resisting the seduction of final answers while still acting meaningfully in a world of shifting terms.