A post-philosophical essay on knowledge/power: Richard Rorty, anti-foundationalism, and the possibility of an alternative epistemology

The present dissertation conducts an examination of the role of epistemology in knowledge-production from the point of view of post-philosophy. It argues against, on the one hand, some recent yet traditionally- and epistemologically-oriented criticisms of the anti-foundationalism of Rortyean post-philosophy; and, at the same time, it argues against the established claim of Rortyean post-philosophy that there cannot be an alternative epistemology. Viewed from a different angle, the present dissertation attempts to challenge the unequal power relation between organized scientific knowledge and everyday life-world knowledge, thereby taking a small step toward legitimizing the common people's redefinition and reorientation of the philosophy of the academy. By exploring the socio-political implications of the anti-foundationalism of post-philosophy, I suggest that post-philosophy has to serve to resist scientific knowledge as the foundation of other types of knowledge. In that sense, post-philosophy has to be at the same time a philosophy of post-science.