Richard Rorty was an American philosopher in the 20th century. He was a (neo)-pragmatist, which means he believed words, phrases and language in general should be understood by looking at how they are used (by people), rather than the (intended or supposed) meaning behind those words. This fundamental intuition about language was already worded much earlier by Ludwig Wittgenstein (in Philosophical Investigations, 1953); Wittgenstein's linguistic philosophy was often summarised by the term "Don't ask for the meaning; ask for the use!". Richard Rorty further developed this intuition in many books, his most famous one being "Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity" (1989).