Since Socrates and his circle first tried to frame the Just City in words, discussion of a perfect communal life--a life of justice, reflection, and mutual respect--has had to come to terms with the distance between that idea and reality. Measuring this distance step by practical step is the philosophical project that Stanley Cavell has pursued on his exploratory path. Situated at the intersection of two of his longstanding interests--Emersonian philosophy and the Hollywood comedy of remarriage--Cavell's new work marks a significant advance in this project. The book--which presents a course of lectures Cavell presented several times toward the end of his teaching career at Harvard--links masterpieces of moral philosophy and classic Hollywood comedies to fashion a new way of looking at our lives and learning to live with ourselves.
This book offers philosophy in the key of life. Beginning with a rereading of Emerson's "Self-Reliance," Cavell traces the idea of perfectionism through works by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, and Rawls, and by such artists as Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, and Shakespeare. Cities of Words shows that this ever-evolving idea, brought to dramatic life in movies such as It Happened One Night, The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story, and The Lady Eve, has the power to reorient the perception of Western philosophy.
- 475 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
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Information
Topic
PhilosophySubtopic
Film History & CriticismTable of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Emerson
- Chapter 2. The Philadelphia Story
- Chapter 3. Locke
- Chapter 4. Adam’s Rib
- Chapter 5. John Stuart Mill
- Chapter 6. Gaslight
- Chapter 7. Kant
- Chapter 8. It Happened One Night
- Chapter 9. Rawls
- Chapter 10. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Chapter 11. Nietzsche
- Chapter 12. Now, Voyager
- Chapter 13. Ibsen
- Chapter 14. Stella Dallas
- Chapter 15. Freud
- Chapter 16. The Lady Eve
- Chapter 17. Plato
- Chapter 18. His Girl Friday
- Chapter 19. Aristotle
- Chapter 20. The Awful Truth
- Chapter 21. Henry James and Max Ophuls
- Chapter 22. G. B. Shaw: Pygmalion and Pygmalion
- Chapter 23. Shakespeare and Rohmer: Two Tales of Winter
- Themes of Moral Perfectionism in Plato’s Republic
- Acknowledgments
- Index
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Yes, you can access Cities of Words by Stanley Cavell in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Film History & Criticism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.