A Pitch of Philosophy: Autobiographical Exercises

by Stanley Cavell

Overview

This book is an invitation to the life of philosophy in the United States, as Emerson once lived it and as Stanley Cavell now lives it—in all its topographical ambiguity. Cavell talks about his vocation in connection with what he calls voice—the tone of philosophy—and his right to take that tone, and to describe an anecdotal journey toward the discovery of his own voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674669819
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Series:	The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures , #4
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1540L (what's this?)

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

Overture

1. Philosophy and the Arrogation of Voice

2. Counter-Philosophy and the Pawn of Voice

The Metaphysical Voice

Worlds of Philosophical Difference

Pictures of Destruction

Derrida's Austin and the Stake of Positivism

Exclusion of the Theory of Excuses: On the Tragic

Exclusion of the Theory of the Non-Serious

Skepticism and the Serious

Two Pictures of Communication: Assigning

What (Thing) Is Transmitted? Austin Moves

Two Pictures of Language in Relation to (the) World

Three Pictures of My Attachment to My Words: Signing

Opera and the Lease of Voice

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Subject Index

Name Index

What People are Saying About This

Ian Hacking

This is A Cavell's Progress. A reworking of his lifework themes intimating how the diverse parts, which might seem unconnected from the outside, are felt as of a piece. In philosophy, the discovery of Austin, the understanding of Wittgenstein, the raising of Emerson to the philosophical canon, the fascination with film, with images of women in a medium for women, the revelation that film and opera are the mediums of otherness for women. All this hung together with much intense family reminiscence, of Cavell choosing at sixteen his name, much about his mother the musician, about his father and the pawn shop.
— Ian Hacking, University of Toronto

Samuel Weber

The result of Cavell's struggle to defend the Austinian heritage, in its 'democratic' defense of the ordinary, by restoring the distinctive voice and tone that he takes Derrida to neglect is to my knowledge the most suggestive discussion of the distinctive status of tone and voice in response to the two philosophical traditions epitomized, however ironically, by Derrida and Austin.
— Samuel Weber, UCLA

Editorial Reviews

The autobiographical note of Cavell’s philosophy, here as in his other writings, evokes an atmosphere of fragility and danger… Whether in the discussion of the haunting of Hamlet, or in the analysis of inheritance in the film Gaslight in which ‘something is resounding,’ or even in the reflections on the ‘necessarily forged’ signatures of ghosts, Cavell presents an understated but powerful analysis of a world and a self haunted by voices… Cavell’s work extends philosophy into other domains… His autobiographical exercises exemplify ‘humane criticism’ applied to philosophy, remaining true to the technical demands of the discipline and paying heed to the claims of the experience that sustains it.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Howard Caygill

Stanley Cavell is among the very few philosophers in America to have achieved a major reputation primarily through writing on the arts, and perhaps the only one to have evolved a prose style that has something of the character of artistic expression in its own right… The author’s voice kept—keeps—ringing in my inadequately pitched ear.

ArtForum - Arthur C. Danto

Cavell has carried on the tradition of Wittgenstein and John Austin into new areas of philosophy and literature… The present work is both an intellectual autobiography and a philosophy of the autobiography, in which he defends the authority of the personal voice. Of most philosophical interest is a long account, part actual, part possible, of an exchange between Austin and Derrida with Cavell’s own voice as adjudicator much in evidence.

Choice

The result of Cavell’s struggle to defend the Austinian heritage, in its ‘democratic’ defense of the ordinary, by restoring the distinctive voice and tone that he takes Derrida to neglect is to my knowledge the most suggestive discussion of the distinctive status of tone and voice in response to the two philosophical traditions epitomized, however ironically, by Derrida and Austin.

Samuel Weber

This is A Cavell’s Progress. A reworking of his lifework themes intimating how the diverse parts, which might seem unconnected from the outside, are felt as of a piece. In philosophy, the discovery of Austin, the understanding of Wittgenstein, the raising of Emerson to the philosophical canon, the fascination with film, with images of women in a medium for women, the revelation that film and opera are the mediums of otherness for women. All this hung together with much intense family reminiscence, of Cavell choosing at sixteen his name, much about his mother the musician, about his father and the pawn shop.

Ian Hacking

Cavell has carried on the tradition of Wittgenstein and John Austin into new areas of philosophy and literature... The present work is both an intellectual autobiography and a philosophy of the autobiography, in which he defends the authority of the personal voice. Of most philosophical interest is a long account, part actual, part possible, of an exchange between Austin and Derrida with Cavell's own voice as adjudicator much in evidence.-- "Choice"

Stanley Cavell is among the very few philosophers in America to have achieved a major reputation primarily through writing on the arts, and perhaps the only one to have evolved a prose style that has something of the character of artistic expression in its own right... The author's voice kept--keeps--ringing in my inadequately pitched ear.--Arthur C. Danto "ArtForum"

The autobiographical note of Cavell's philosophy, here as in his other writings, evokes an atmosphere of fragility and danger... Whether in the discussion of the haunting of Hamlet, or in the analysis of inheritance in the film Gaslight in which 'something is resounding, ' or even in the reflections on the 'necessarily forged' signatures of ghosts, Cavell presents an understated but powerful analysis of a world and a self haunted by voices... Cavell's work extends philosophy into other domains... His autobiographical exercises exemplify 'humane criticism' applied to philosophy, remaining true to the technical demands of the discipline and paying heed to the claims of the experience that sustains it.--Howard Caygill "Times Higher Education Supplement"

The result of Cavell's struggle to defend the Austinian heritage, in its 'democratic' defense of the ordinary, by restoring the distinctive voice and tone that he takes Derrida to neglect is to my knowledge the most suggestive discussion of the distinctive status of tone and voice in response to the two philosophical traditions epitomized, however ironically, by Derrida and Austin.--Samuel Weber, University of California, Los Angeles

This is A Cavell's Progress. A reworking of his lifework themes intimating how the diverse parts, which might seem unconnected from the outside, are felt as of a piece. In philosophy, the discovery of Austin, the understanding of Wittgenstein, the raising of Emerson to the philosophical canon, the fascination with film, with images of women in a medium for women, the revelation that film and opera are the mediums of otherness for women. All this hung together with much intense family reminiscence, of Cavell choosing at sixteen his name, much about his mother the musician, about his father and the pawn shop.--Ian Hacking, University of Toronto

From the Publisher

Stanley Cavell is among the very few philosophers in America to have achieved a major reputation primarily through writing on the arts, and perhaps the only one to have evolved a prose style that has something of the character of artistic expression in its own right...The author's voice kept—keeps—ringing in my inadequately pitched ear.
— Arthur C. Danto

ArtForum

The autobiographical note of Cavell's philosophy, here as in his other writings, evokes an atmosphere of fragility and danger...Whether in the discussion of the haunting of Hamlet, or in the analysis of inheritance in the film Gaslight in which 'something is resounding', or even in the reflections on the 'necessarily forged' signatures of ghosts, Cavell presents an understated but powerful analysis of a world and a self haunted by voices...Cavell's work extends philosophy into other domains...His autobiographical exercises exemplify 'humane criticism' applied to philosophy, remaining true to the technical demands of the discipline and paying heed to the claims of the experience that sustains it.
— Howard Caygill

Times Higher Education Supplement

Cavell is an odd man out at Harvard-a philosopher with a taste for romanticism and an interest in rhetoric. He was especially moved by J.L. Austin's How To Do Things with Words (1975), one kind of Oxford ``ordinary language'' philosophy, but he developed his own critique. Lately, he is best known as the man who restored Emerson and Thoreau to philosophical respectability; hence his concern with having one's own voice in the sense of being heard in one's own way and with being a philosopher who makes a difference. The book offers us charming snippets of his life-the child writing pawn tickets for his father or listening to his pianist mother on the radio, the young man giving up the study of composition at the Juilliard School. And it shows the philosopher caught between deflationist beliefs about metaphysics and romantic beliefs about individualism. But Cavell's readings of philosophers famous and obscure (Derrida, Wittgenstein, Austin, Roderick Firth, Benson Mates) are never quite usual, and the snippets here are too brief and flickering to allow the reader to take their measure. Those who know Cavell's work and the works he speaks of will enjoy the book. Others will be baffled. For academic libraries.-Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa

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