“It is by following Wittgenstein’s lead that analytic philosophy has progressed toward the “post-positivistic” stance it presently occupies. But Wittgenstein’s flair for deconstructing captivating pictures needs to be supplemented by historical awareness — awareness of the source of all this mirror imagery — and that seems to me Heidegger’s greatest contribution. Heidegger’s way of recounting history of philosophy lets us see the beginnings of the Cartesian imagery in the Greeks and the metamorphoses of this imagery during the last three centuries. He thus lets us “distance” ourselves from the tradition.”

– Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

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