Do czego potrzebni są intelektualiści? O polityce kulturalnej według Richarda Rorty’ego

The present text deals with the account of cultural politics formulated by an American philosopher Richard Rorty. This account can be interpreted as an attempt to address the issue of the social role of intellectuals, especially after the decline of the presuppositions which legitimized their previous claims. Rorty saw cultural politics as a chance to combine socio-political engagement with individual creativity and originality. However, his account is criticized, due to, inter alia, some of its outdated aspects. Some doubt also remains whether it can deal satisfactorily with the problem to which it was originally supposed to provide an answer.