Ironism (n. ironist; from Greek: eiron, eironeia) is a term coined by Richard Rorty for the concept that allows rhetorical scholars to actively participate in political practices. It is usually described as a modernist literary intellectual's project of fashioning the best possible self through continual redescription. With this concept, Rorty argues for a contingency that rejects necessity and universality in relation to the ideas of language, self, and community.

Concept

In his writings, Rorty cited three conditions that constitute the ironist perspective that show how the concept undercuts the rationality of conservative, reactionary, and totalitarian positions by maintaining the contingency of all beliefs: In Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Rorty argues that Proust, Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger, Derrida, and Nabokov, among others, all exemplify ironism to different extents. It is also said that ironism and liberalism are compatible, particularly if such liberalism has been altered by pragmatic reductionism.