The Postmodern Face of American Exceptionalism

Abstract

Postmodernism has rightly been viewed as delivering the death knell to Western chauvinism vis à vis all other cultures by undermining the idea that the West has access to a universal moral standard representing truth, freedom, and justice lor all humanity. So, in so far as American Exceptionalism is the ultimate manifestation of Western confidence in its superiority, it would seem to be incongruous with postmodernism. But this is not necessarily the case. Richard Rorty defends an American Exceptionalism dressed in the garb of postmodern ity. In what follows, I will argue that even though Rorty rejects postmodernism as a meaningless term, and repudiates relativism as absurd, his political philosophy displays all the vices of relativism and postmodernism without the saving graces of these modes of thought. What is even worse, Rorty imbues his postmodern nationalism with the worst vices of moral absolutism.