Philosophy and the mirror of nature is a 1979 book by the american philosopher richard rorty in which the author attempts to dissolve modern philosophical problems instead of solving them by presenting them as pseudo problems that only exist in the language game of epistemological projects culminating in analytic philosophy in a pragmatist gesture rorty suggests that philosophy must get past these pseudo problems if it is to be productive the work was considered controversial . Philosophy and the mirror of nature hit the philosophical world like a bombshell richard rorty a princeton professor who had contributed to the analytic tradition in philosophy was now attempting to shrug off all the central problems with which it had long been preoccupied after publication the press was barely able to keep up with demand and the book has since gone on to become one of its all time best sellers in philosophy rorty argued that beginning in the seventeenth century . In philosophy and the mirror of nature rorty examines philosophy as performed by academics in the 1970s he sees philosophers making false assumptions his main target is a certain set of related ideas which descartes created 1 each person has a mind 2 the mind is like a mirror reflecting reality nature and 3 truth is ideas corresponding to that reality rortys intention is to destroy that set of ideas and that metaphor rortys approach through most of the book is to . Klappentext zu philosophy and the mirror of nature when it first appeared in 1979 philosophy and the mirror of nature hit the philosophical world like a bombshell in it richard rorty argued that beginning in the seventeenth century philosophers developed an unhealthy obsession with the notion of representation comparing the mind to a mirror that reflects reality rortys book is a