Common sense hinges on a “final vocabulary”—an unexamined framework of truths shaping our judgments. The ironist resists this closure, finding such truths contingent, not eternal.
Unlike metaphysicians (or realists), who question in order to seek firmer ground, ironists destabilize inherited meaning, aware that claims to universality often mask circular reasoning. Irony becomes both method and refuge, exposing how “truths” rely on consensus, not necessity (wisdom of crowds or madness of the mob?).
Thus, relativism is less a flaw than an honest confrontation with interpretive fragility. Irony, then, is not nihilism—it is intellectual humility resisting dogma disguised as clarity.
(from Richard Rorty)