Stanley Louis Cavell (; September 1, 1926 – June 19, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He worked in the fields of

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

, and ordinary language philosophy. As an interpreter, he produced influential works on

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

, Austin, Emerson, Thoreau, and

Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language. In April ...

. His work is characterized by its conversational tone and frequent literary references.

Life

Cavell was born as Stanley Louis Goldstein to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. His mother, Fannie (Segal), the daughter of immigrants from Romania, was a locally renowned pianist for radio,

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

, and silent films. She trained him in music from his earliest days. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Cavell's parents moved several times between Atlanta and

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. As an adolescent, Cavell played lead

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

as the youngest member of a black jazz band in Sacramento. Around this time he changed his name, anglicizing his father's original Polish name, Kavelieruskii (sometimes spelled "Kavelieriskii"). He entered the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where, along with his lifelong friend Bob Thompson, he majored in music, studying with, among others, Roger Sessions and Ernest Bloch. After graduation, he studied composition at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

of Music in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, only to discover that music was not his calling. He entered graduate school in philosophy at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, and then transferred to

. As a student there he came under the influence of J. L. Austin, whose teaching and methods "knocked him off ... ishorse." In 1954 he was awarded a Junior Fellowship at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Before completing his Ph.D., he became an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. Cavell's daughter by his first wife (Marcia Cavell), Rachel Lee Cavell, was born in 1957. In 1962–63 Cavell was a Fellow at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, where he befriended the British philosopher

Bernard Williams Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (21 September 1929 – 10 June 2003) was an English Ethics, moral philosopher. His publications include ''Problems of the Self'' (1973), ''Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'' (1985), ''Shame and Necessit ...

. Cavell’s marriage to Marcia ended in divorce in 1961. In 1963 he returned to the Harvard Philosophy Department, where he became the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value. In the summer of 1964, Cavell joined a group of graduate students, who taught at Tougaloo College, a historically black Protestant college in Mississippi, as part of what became known as the

Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as Mississippi Freedom Summer (sometimes referred to as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project), was a campaign launched by civil rights movement, American civil rights activists in June 1964 to r ...

. He and Cathleen (Cohen) Cavell were married in 1967. In April 1969, during the student protests (chiefly arising from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

), Cavell, helped by his colleague

John Rawls John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...

, worked with a group of African-American students to draft language for a faculty vote to establish Harvard's Department of African and African-American Studies. In 1976, Cavell's first son, Benjamin, was born. In 1979, along with the documentary filmmaker Robert H. Gardner, Cavell helped found the Harvard Film Archive, to preserve and present the history of film. Cavell received a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

in 1992. In 1996-97 Cavell was president of the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

(Eastern Division). In 1984, his second son, David, was born. Cavell remained on the Harvard faculty until retiring in 1997. Thereafter, he taught courses at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. He also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

in 1998. Cavell died in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

on June 19, 2018, at the age of 91. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Philosophy

Although trained in the Anglo-American analytic tradition, Cavell frequently interacted with the continental tradition. He includes

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

study in philosophical inquiry. Cavell wrote extensively on

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

, J. L. Austin, and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

, as well as the American transcendentalists

Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

. His work was for a time frequently compared to that of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

, whom he met in 1970. Although their exchange was congenial, Cavell denied the full extent to which

deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

could undermine the possibility of meaning, instead taking an explicitly ordinary language approach to language and skepticism. He writes about Wittgenstein in a fashion known as the New Wittgenstein, which according to

Alice Crary Alice Crary (; born 1967) is an American philosopher who currently holds the positions of University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research in New York City and Visiting Fellow at Regent's Park Col ...

interprets Wittgenstein as putting forward a positive view of philosophy as a therapeutic form. Cavell's work incorporates autobiographical elements concerning how his movement between and within these thinkers' ideas influenced his views in the arts and humanities, beyond the technical study of philosophy. Cavell established his distinct philosophical identity with ''Must We Mean What We Say?'' (1969), a collection of essays that addresses topics such as language use, metaphor, skepticism, tragedy, and literary interpretation from the point of view of ordinary language philosophy, of which he is a practitioner and ardent defender. One of the essays discusses

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

's work on revelation and authority, '' The Book on Adler'', in an effort to help reintroduce the book to modern philosophical readers. In ''The World Viewed'' (1971) Cavell looks at photography, film, modernism in art and the nature of media, mentioning the influence of art critic Michael Fried on his work. Cavell is well-known for ''The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy'' (1979), which forms the centerpiece of his work and has its origins in his doctoral dissertation. In ''Pursuits of Happiness'' (1981), Cavell describes his experience of seven prominent Hollywood comedies: '' The Lady Eve'', ''

It Happened One Night ''It Happened One Night'' is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite ( Claudette Colbert) tr ...

'', '' Bringing Up Baby'', '' The Philadelphia Story'', '' His Girl Friday'', '' Adam’s Rib'', and '' The Awful Truth''. Cavell argues that these films, from 1934–1949, form part of what he calls the genre of " The Comedy of Remarriage," and finds in them great philosophical, moral, and political significance. Specifically, Cavell argues that these comedies show that "the achievement of happiness requires not the ..satisfaction of our needs ..but the examination and transformation of those needs." According to Cavell, the emphasis these movies place on remarriage draws attention to the fact that, within a relationship, happiness requires "growing up" together with one's partner. In ''Cities of Words'' (2004) Cavell traces the history of moral perfectionism, a mode of moral thinking spanning the history of Western philosophy and literature. Having used Emerson to outline the concept, the book suggests ways we might want to understand philosophy, literature, and film as preoccupied with features of perfectionism. In ''Philosophy the Day After Tomorrow'' (2005), a collection of essays, Cavell makes the case that J. L. Austin's concept of performative utterance requires the supplementary concept of ''passionate utterance'': "A performative utterance is an offer of participation in the order of law. And perhaps we can say: A passionate utterance is an invitation to improvisation in the disorders of desire." The book also contains extended discussions of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and Fred Astaire, as well as familiar Cavellian subjects such as

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Emerson, Thoreau, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger. Cavell's final book, ''Little Did I Know: Excerpts from Memory'' (2010), is an autobiography written in the form of a diary. In a series of consecutive, dated entries, he inquires about the origins of his philosophy by telling the story of his life. A scholarly journal, ''Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies'', engages with his philosophical work. It is edited by Sérgio Dias Branco and Amir Khan and published by the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

Honorary degrees

*Doctor of Humane Letters,

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, K ...

, 1980 *Doctor of Letters, Iona College, 1985 *Doctor of Humane Letters,

, 1987 *Docteur, Honoris Causa, Université de Strasbourg, 1996 *Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa, Hebrew University, 1997 *Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa,

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, 2009 *Docteur, Honoris Causa, École normale supérieure de Lyon, 2010 *Doctor of Letters,

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

, 2010 *Doctor of Theology, Institut protestant de théologie de Paris, 2010

Selected honors

*Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows,

, 1953–56 *Fellow,

, 1962–1963 *Distinguished Teaching Award,

, 1961 *Fellow,

Center for the Humanities, 1970–1971 *Fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, 1978– *Fellow,

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

*President,

(Eastern Division), 1996–97 *2000 Centennial Medalist,

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences *Romanell

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

Professorship, 2004–05 *Member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

, 2005-

Selected special lectureships

*Patricia Wise Lecture,

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

, 1982 *Mrs. William Beckman Lectures,

, 1983 *Tanner Lecture,

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, April 1986 *Carus Lectures,

, 1988 *Plenary Address, Shakespeare World Congress,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 1996 *Presidential Address,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, 1996 *Howison Lectures,

, February, 2002

Bibliography

* ''Must We Mean What We Say?'' (1969) * ''The Senses of

Walden ''Walden'' (; first published as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is an 1854 book by American transcendentalism, transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. T ...

'' (1972) Expanded edition San Francisco: North Point Press, 1981. *
The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film
' (1971); 2nd enlarged edition (1979) * ''The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy'' (1979) New York: Oxford University Press. *
Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage
' (1981) * ''Themes Out of School: Effects and Causes'' (1984) * ''Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare'' (1987); 2nd edition: ''Disowning Knowledge: In Seven Plays of Shakespeare'' (2003) * ''In Quest of the Ordinary: Lines of Scepticism and Romanticism'' (1988) Chicago: Chicago University Press. * ''This New Yet Unapproachable America: Lectures after Emerson after Wittgenstein'' (1988) * ''Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome: The Constitution of Emersonian Perfectionism'' (1990) *
A Pitch of Philosophy: Autobiographical Exercises
' (1994) * ''Philosophical Passages: Wittgenstein, Emerson, Austin, Derrida'' (1995) * ''Contesting Tears: The Melodrama of the Unknown Woman'' (1996) * ''Emerson's Transcendental Etudes'' (2003) * ''Cavell on Film'' (2005) *
Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life
' (2004) *
Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow
' (2005) * ''Little Did I Know: Excerpts from Memory'' (2010) * ''Here and There: Sites of Philosophy'' (2022)

References

External links

2005 version
(archived)
Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies
* Daniel Ross
Review of Cavell, ''Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow''A study (in French) on Cavell's idea of perfectionism
*
PennSound page with audio and video linksRadio interview by Charles Bernstein
*Cohen, Marshall (2019)
"Must We Mean What We Say?: On the Life and Thought of Stanley Cavell"
'' Los Angeles Review of Books''. Retrieved 2024-10-08. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavell, Stanley 1926 births 2018 deaths Writers from Atlanta Writers from Sacramento, California Academics from Brookline, Massachusetts 20th-century American Jews MacArthur Fellows Harvard University alumni Juilliard School alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Harvard Fellows 20th-century American philosophers Wittgensteinian philosophers Analytic philosophers Philosophers from Georgia (U.S. state) American philosophers of language Jewish philosophers Film theorists Film theory Harvard University Department of Philosophy faculty Wesleyan University faculty Tougaloo College faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Yale University faculty University of Chicago faculty Ordinary language philosophy American autobiographers Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Presidents of the American Philosophical Association Members of the American Philosophical Society 21st-century American Jews American philosophers of art