Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral LifeHarvard University Press, 2005 M10 31 - 458 pages 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Chapter 1 Emerson | 19 |
Chapter 2 The Philadelphia Story | 35 |
Chapter 3 Locke | 49 |
Chapter 4 Adams Rib | 70 |
Chapter 5 John Stuart Mill | 82 |
Chapter 6 Gaslight | 102 |
Chapter 7 Kant | 119 |
Chapter 14 Stella Dallas | 265 |
Chapter 15 Freud | 282 |
Chapter 16 The Lady Eve | 301 |
Chapter 17 Plato | 313 |
Chapter 18 His Girl Friday | 340 |
Chapter 19 Aristotle | 352 |
Chapter 20 The Awful Truth | 373 |
Chapter 21 Henry James and Max Ophuls | 384 |
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Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life Stanley Cavell Limited preview - 2005 |