Cavell Reader

By: Mulhall, Mulhall

Book Overview

A personal glimpse inside the mind of a leading philosopher The Cavell Reader is an introduction to one of the 20th century's most influential American philosophers. Stanley Cavell was well-known for the broad scope of his writing, which is a major theme of this book; topics include aesthetics, psychoanalysis, film theory, literary criticism, religion, Austin, Emerson, Wittgenstein, and more. Presented in a sequence that illustrates Cavell's evolution of thought through key periods and phases, these pieces provide an overview of the man behind the words, and serve as an introduction to his more famous philosophical work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0631197435
• ISBN13: 9780631197430
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A solid introduction to Cavell

You can skip this book and just read "Pursuits of Happiness" and "The Claim of Reason," two masterpieces by this author. But if you want a little more Cavell after "POH" but need to get your feet wet before plunging into the long, long-winded, and fiendishly difficult "COR," this book is well worth purchasing. You will be treated to Cavell's pet obsessions (e.g. all of modern man's problems can be traced to our all-too-human need to transcend the human condition, so that what we really need from philosophy is to learn how to reconcile ourselves to "the ordinary"), his insane but compelling readings of Shakespeare (up there with Freud's case histories in their interpretive gusto and zaniness), and the quirky, surrealist sense of humour, borrowed from his great influence, Wittgenstein, with which he attacks epistemological problems. As a bonus, you will get a wildly eccentric list (in "Moral Perfectionism") of great philosophical and literary works in which Cavell is quite sure his own obsessions are anticipated, which, if you're like me, you will devote years to working your way through. Cavell is eloquent, nuts, passionate, irritating, moving, and never boring (even when he's droning on and on). One of my favourite authors.