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

by Stanley Cavell

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674971271
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	474
Sales rank:	984,458
File size:	905 KB

About the Author

Stanley Cavell (1926–2018) was Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value, Emeritus, at Harvard University. His numerous books include The Claim of Reason, Cities of Words, and Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow.

Table of Contents

Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1. Emerson The Question of Philosophy Moral Paradoxes Two Figures of the Friend The Nature of Reading 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

Editorial Reviews

Drawing equally upon Emerson and classic Hollywood cinema, Cavell (A Pitch of Philosophy), a renowned professor of philosophy at Harvard, explores a theory of "moral perfectionism" in this work taken from a collection of lectures given at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Against the predominantly metaphysical notion of perfection that demands moral questions be provided with absolute answers, Cavell explores the more uncertain intersection of intellectual and emotional elements in everyday moral choices that quotidian social affairs frequently demand from us. He covers the juxtaposition of the individual and the broader community and the crises of conformity that confront moral agents by analyzing remarriage comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s. While in its own right a profound addition to film criticism in its reading of Hollywood favorites such as The Philadelphia Story, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Now, Voyager, lay readers will be entertained by Cavell's attention to cinematic detail and pragmatically therapeutic approach to moral questions. A sober examination of an ethics of "self-reliance," Cavell's cinematic criticism is as entertaining as it is enlightening and exemplifies, once again, his uncanny ability to recover the deepest insights of modern life within the language of the ordinary. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

What does it mean to live a moral life? In his typically provocative fashion, Cavell (Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics & the General Theory of Value Emeritus, Harvard) answers this question by juxtaposing various philosophical responses with particular films that illuminate those responses. Cavell argues that living a moral life cannot be regulated merely by attention to rules or to consequences of actions. Instead, using Plato and Emerson as his major guides, he contends that the key to living a moral life resides in asking how one's life should be lived and in how one aspires to live one's life. For example, Cavell pairs Emerson with George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story to demonstrate that moral perfectionism consists in making oneself intelligible to others and to oneself. Cavell discusses a wide range of philosophers, from Kant to John Rawls, and the films he discusses range from It Happened One Night to Now, Voyager to Stella Dallas. Cavell's "letters" offer a ready and heady departure from the usual conversations on moral life, and his inventive use of film helps bring the philosophers he discusses to life. Recommended for its innovation and insight into moral theory and practice, this book will be most useful to libraries that serve academic communities and large public libraries.-Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Without genre or parallel, this book continues the interior dialogue of Cavell on the traditions of and prospects for moral perfectionism.

Choice - D. W. Sullivan

In Cities of Words, a knotty and enlightening book, chapters about philosophers are paired with chapters about films: Emerson and The Philadelphia Story, Locke and Adam's Rib, Nietzsche and Now, Voyager, Aristotle and The Awful Truth...Cavell shows that the spirit of moral quest has an unusual power, even in the restricted world of these films. For all their artifice, they suggest that characters really can change themselves, that they can form ideals of justice, while keeping in mind how much failure and imperfection will be met along the way. That's not a bad democratic vision, and it remains as potent now as it was when Katharine Hepburn rediscovered her love for Cary Grant.

New York Times - Edward Rothstein

This is a political book, not simply because of Cavell's readings of political philosophy, which intersperse his discussion of the films and are, as usual, probing and original, but because of its overt pedagogical aim: to educate his readers and to show us how we educate each other.

Philosophers' Magazine - Katerina Deligiorgi

In the big parade of American writing about film, Stanley Cavell occupies a strange, outsider position. A Harvard professor of philosophy, he is not, by his own admission, either a film critic or a film scholar; yet he has written with persistent trenchancy and brilliance about movies...Now Cavell, in his late seventies, has given us a volume that synthesizes his life's work in philosophy and film, while adding a third leg to the triangle: teaching. Cities of Words is based on a celebrated course of lectures he gave several times before he retired from the classroom, which alternated discussions of philosophical or literary texts and films...In The World Viewed, Cavell wrote: 'It is generally true of the writing about film which has meant something to me that it has the power of the missing companion. Agee and Robert Warshow and André Bazin manage that mode of conversation all the time; and I have found it in, among others, Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, Parker Tyler, Andrew Sarris.' Alongside these names so companionable to film buffs, I would happily add another: Stanley Cavell.

Film Comment - Phillip Lopate

In Cities of Words, Cavell once again reminds us of the practical importance of philosophy. He not only offers insightful commentaries on the giants of moral philosophy but also prompts us to engage in the much-needed conversation about the good life.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Mariana Ortega

Perhaps more than any living philosopher in the English language Cavell has consistently and almost obsessively been at pains to carve out his own path. He is genuinely original. But more than this his life-long commitment to this project has been undertaken with a philosophical seriousness that is increasingly unusual. City of Words will, then, not only illuminate previous publications on Hollywood film of the 1930s and 1940s, but also enable careful readers to begin to understand how recurrent themes - the import and impact of skepticism and the necessity that we understand its challenge; the strangeness and richness of attending to the everyday; the interfaces between moral, theological and psychoanalytic thought; the common strands in ordinary language philosophy's articulation of key questions in the philosophy of mind and of language and those same questions in the European philosophical school, most especially in the work of Wittgenstein and Heidegger - link together and stretch across readings of the western philosophical tradition. Cities of Words will, then, help the considerable Cavellian oeuvre begin to make sense in a far more substantial, and perhaps unusual way than it has heretofore. It shows us how Cavell ticks.

Peter de Bolla

In Cities of Words, Cavell once again reminds us of the practical importance of philosophy. He not only offers insightful commentaries on the giants of moral philosophy but also prompts us to engage in the much-needed conversation about the good life.--Mariana Ortega "Times Higher Education Supplement" (4/8/2005 12:00:00 AM)

A sober examination of an ethics of 'self-reliance, ' Cavell's cinematic criticism is as entertaining as it is enlightening and exemplifies, once again, his uncanny ability to recover the deepest insights of modern life within the language of the ordinary.-- "Publishers Weekly" (4/26/2004 12:00:00 AM)

In Cities of Words, a knotty and enlightening book, chapters about philosophers are paired with chapters about films: Emerson and The Philadelphia Story, Locke and Adam's Rib, Nietzsche and Now, Voyager, Aristotle and The Awful Truth...Cavell shows that the spirit of moral quest has an unusual power, even in the restricted world of these films. For all their artifice, they suggest that characters really can change themselves, that they can form ideals of justice, while keeping in mind how much failure and imperfection will be met along the way. That's not a bad democratic vision, and it remains as potent now as it was when Katharine Hepburn rediscovered her love for Cary Grant.--Edward Rothstein "New York Times" (5/29/2004 12:00:00 AM)

In the big parade of American writing about film, Stanley Cavell occupies a strange, outsider position. A Harvard professor of philosophy, he is not, by his own admission, either a film critic or a film scholar; yet he has written with persistent trenchancy and brilliance about movies...Now Cavell, in his late seventies, has given us a volume that synthesizes his life's work in philosophy and film, while adding a third leg to the triangle: teaching. Cities of Words is based on a celebrated course of lectures he gave several times before he retired from the classroom, which alternated discussions of philosophical or literary texts and films...In The World Viewed, Cavell wrote: 'It is generally true of the writing about film which has meant something to me that it has the power of the missing companion. Agee and Robert Warshow and André Bazin manage that mode of conversation all the time; and I have found it in, among others, Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, Parker Tyler, Andrew Sarris.' Alongside these names so companionable to film buffs, I would happily add another: Stanley Cavell.--Phillip Lopate "Film Comment" (7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM)

This is a political book, not simply because of Cavell's readings of political philosophy, which intersperse his discussion of the films and are, as usual, probing and original, but because of its overt pedagogical aim: to educate his readers and to show us how we educate each other.--Katerina Deligiorgi "Philosophers' Magazine" (4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM)

What does it mean to live a moral life? In his typically provocative fashion, Cavell answers this question by juxtaposing various philosophical responses with particular films that illuminate those responses...Cavell's 'letters' offer a ready and heady departure from the usual conversation on moral life, and his inventive use of film helps bring the philosophers he discusses to life.--Henry I. Carrigan Jr. "Library Journal" (5/1/2004 12:00:00 AM)

Without genre or parallel, this book continues the interior dialogue of Cavell on the traditions of and prospects for moral perfectionism.--D. W. Sullivan "Choice" (11/1/2004 12:00:00 AM)

Perhaps more than any living philosopher in the English language Cavell has consistently and almost obsessively been at pains to carve out his own path. He is genuinely original. But more than this his life-long commitment to this project has been undertaken with a philosophical seriousness that is increasingly unusual. City of Words will, then, not only illuminate previous publications on Hollywood film of the 1930s and 1940s, but also enable careful readers to begin to understand how recurrent themes - the import and impact of skepticism and the necessity that we understand its challenge; the strangeness and richness of attending to the everyday; the interfaces between moral, theological and psychoanalytic thought; the common strands in ordinary language philosophy's articulation of key questions in the philosophy of mind and of language and those same questions in the European philosophical school, most especially in the work of Wittgenstein and Heidegger - link together and stretch across readings of the western philosophical tradition. Cities of Words will, then, help the considerable Cavellian oeuvre begin to make sense in a far more substantial, and perhaps unusual way than it has heretofore. It shows us how Cavell ticks.--Peter de Bolla, author of Art Matters

From the Publisher

Perhaps more than any living philosopher in the English language Cavell has consistently and almost obsessively been at pains to carve out his own path. He is genuinely original. But more than this his life-long commitment to this project has been undertaken with a philosophical seriousness that is increasingly unusual. City of Words will, then, not only illuminate previous publications on Hollywood film of the 1930s and 1940s, but also enable careful readers to begin to understand how recurrent themes - the import and impact of skepticism and the necessity that we understand its challenge; the strangeness and richness of attending to the everyday; the interfaces between moral, theological and psychoanalytic thought; the common strands in ordinary language philosophy's articulation of key questions in the philosophy of mind and of language and those same questions in the European philosophical school, most especially in the work of Wittgenstein and Heidegger - link together and stretch across readings of the western philosophical tradition. Cities of Words will, then, help the considerable Cavellian oeuvre begin to make sense in a far more substantial, and perhaps unusual way than it has heretofore. It shows us how Cavell ticks.

Peter De Bolla

This is a political book, not simply because of Cavell's readings of political philosophy, which intersperse his discussion of the films and are, as usual, probing and original, but because of its overt pedagogical aim: to educate his readers and to show us how we educate each other.
— Katerina Deligiorgi

Philosophers' Magazine

In Cities of Words, Cavell once again reminds us of the practical importance of philosophy. He not only offers insightful commentaries on the giants of moral philosophy but also prompts us to engage in the much-needed conversation about the good life.
— Mariana Ortega

Times Higher Education Supplement

Without genre or parallel, this book continues the interior dialogue of Cavell on the traditions of and prospects for moral perfectionism.
— D. W. Sullivan

Choice

In the big parade of American writing about film, Stanley Cavell occupies a strange, outsider position. A Harvard professor of philosophy, he is not, by his own admission, either a film critic or a film scholar; yet he has written with persistent trenchancy and brilliance about movies...Now Cavell, in his late seventies, has given us a volume that synthesizes his life's work in philosophy and film, while adding a third leg to the triangle: teaching. Cities of Words is based on a celebrated course of lectures he gave several times before he retired from the classroom, which alternated discussions of philosophical or literary texts and films...In The World Viewed, Cavell wrote: 'It is generally true of the writing about film which has meant something to me that it has the power of the missing companion. Agee and Robert Warshow and André Bazin manage that mode of conversation all the time; and I have found it in, among others, Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, Parker Tyler, Andrew Sarris.' Alongside these names so companionable to film buffs, I would happily add another: Stanley Cavell.
— Phillip Lopate

Film Comment

In Cities of Words, a knotty and enlightening book, chapters about philosophers are paired with chapters about films: Emerson and The Philadelphia Story, Locke and Adam's Rib, Nietzsche and Now, Voyager, Aristotle and The Awful Truth...Cavell shows that the spirit of moral quest has an unusual power, even in the restricted world of these films. For all their artifice, they suggest that characters really can change themselves, that they can form ideals of justice, while keeping in mind how much failure and imperfection will be met along the way. That's not a bad democratic vision, and it remains as potent now as it was when Katharine Hepburn rediscovered her love for Cary Grant.
— Edward Rothstein

New York Times