It is as if he realized that Postmodernism had reached bottom with Foucault and Derrida so the only way to go was up. It may also be a testament to the relative benevolence of an American philosopher when compared to his European counterparts. Nevertheless, his language can be intelligible to any nonacademic intelligent reader. Unlike Derrida, Rorty does not use a secret code. This relative honesty makes it possible to focus on his arguments rather than on deciphering his meaning.
Language is a human invention that keeps changing over time, and as such, it can only be contingent.
However, language describes the world out there, so it imposes on the world a certain world-view. All changes in world-view along history can be traced back to a change in language. Rorty includes in his definition of language any vocabulary, literary, scientific or political. Thus, when he refers to a change of vocabulary, he does not refer to the shift from Old English to Middle English to Modern English, but rather to the shift from Aristotelian Science to Newtonian Science, from Classicism to Romanticism and from Capitalism to Socialism. Europe gradually lost the habit of using certain words and gradually acquired the habit of using others.