Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life

Capa
Harvard University Press, 31/10/2005 - 474 páginas

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.

 

Índice

Preface
Introduction
Emerson
The Philadelphia Story
Locke
Adams
John Stuart Mill
Gaslight
Ibsen
Stella Dallas
Freud
The Lady
Plato
His Girl Friday
Aristotle
The Awful Truth

Kant
It Happened One Night
Rawls
Mr Deeds Goes to Town
Nietzsche
Now Voyager
Henry James and Max Ophuls
Pygmalion and Pygmalion
Two Tales of Winter
Themes of Moral Perfectionism in Platos Republic Acknowledgments
Direitos de autor

Outras edições - Ver tudo

Palavras e frases frequentes

Informação bibliográfica