Rorty and Kierkegaard on Irony and Moral Commitment

This book seeks to clarify the concept of irony and its relation to moral commitment. Frazier provides a discussion of the contrasting accounts of Richard Rorty and Søren Kierkegaard. He argues that, while Rorty's position is much more defensible and thoughtful than his detractors acknowledge, it is surprisingly more parochial than Kierkegaard's.

'This is a serious book about irony.In our Seinfeld/Daily Show culture, where ironic detachment is taken as a sign of sophistication, must irony collapse into emptiness? Frazier carefully unfolds the playful, subtle arguments of two important philosophers of irony; he convinced me that many of Rorty's detractors misunderstand him. Granting that irony without an underlying moral seriousness is destructive, Frazier suggests that to pursue responsible personhood, it is critical to master irony à la Kierkegaard, and to lighten up.' Gregory R. Beabout, Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University

'This book offers a lucid and interesting account of Kierkegaard's thoughts on irony. And, although I wasn't convinced by Frazier's defence of Rortian irony, I think he does a better job of defending it than Rorty himself has done. This is a valuable and thought-provoking addition to the literature on Kierkegaard, on Rorty and on irony.' - Anthony Rudd, St. Olaf College, author of Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical

'Brad Frazier provides an exceptionally clear and creative account of the tensions between ironic, critical detachment and moral commitment both in our lives and in our self-understandings. If we can dispense with neither detachment nor commitment, it is nevertheless terribly uncertain how to cope with their opposed demands. Here Frazier expands our grasp by bringing together the perspectives and arguments on this

issue of Richard Rorty and Søren Kierkegaard. Though Rorty is counted among the most cosmopolitan of philosophers, Frazier concludes that Kierkegaard's account is less parochial. More important, he gives us new appreciation of the inescapable knots that tie irony and commitment together.' Edward F. Mooney, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Syracuse University

BRAD FRAZIER is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Lee University, USA. He has appeared several journals, including Journal of Religious Ethics, International Philosophical Quarterly, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Philosophy and Social Criticism.