Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and to compare the conception of science that Richard Rorty and Jean-François Lyotard contend in some of their main writings. First, I will point out some similarities and agreements in their philosophical perspectives, particularly, I will emphasize their epistemological coincidences. Then, I will highlight some important differences in his philosophical interpretation of scientific development and its social role. As a result, it will be possible to clarify and accurately qualify these two postmodern conceptions of science that in several writings appear as indistinguishable or that, at least, are characterized with the same features. I will argue that these differences provide two essentially different viewpoints of science and culture. Finally, I will try to show that the Rortian perspective is more suitable facing contemporaneous problems in science, and to give a proper account of its historical development.