Stanley Cavell

Contemporary Philosophy in Focus offers a series of introductory volumes on many of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. Stanley Cavell has been one of the most creative and independent of contemporary philosophical voices. At the core of his thought is the view that skepticism is not a theoretical position to be refuted by philosophical theory but is a reflection of the fundamental limits of human knowledge of the self, of others and of the external world that must be accepted. This volume is the first attempt systematically and accessibly to describe and assess the full range of Cavell’s work. There are new accounts of Cavell’s contribution to the philosophy of mind and language, the theory of action, ethics, aesthetics, Romanticism, American philosophy, Shakespeare, and film and opera. Outside philosophy the appeal of this volume will be unusually broad.

•  One of the most widely read of contemporary philosophers outside philosophy, in literary studies, art, music, film and American studies •  Cambridge is associated with Stanley Cavell through two classic books being reissued alongside this volume in new editions, Must We Mean what We Say? and Disowning Knowledge in Seven Plays of Shakespeare

1. Introduction Richard Eldridge; 2. Philosophy of mind and epistemology Stephen Mulhall; 3. Theory of action Timothy Gould; 4. Ethics Stanley Bates; 5. Aesthetics, criticism and modernism J. M. Berstein; 6. German philosophy and romanticism William Desmond; 7. American philosophy, metaphilosophy and the idea of America James Conant; 8. Shakespeare, feminism and psychoanalysis Karen Hanson; 9. Movies, opera and voice William Rothman; 10. Cavell on Shakespeare Anthony Cascardi.