Must We Mean What We Say?: A Book of Essays [Paperback]

Stanley Cavell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 1976 | ISBN-10: 0521290481 | ISBN-13: 978-0521290487

This is a remarkable, and now famous, volume of philosophical studies. The essays span and connect topics in the philosophy of language, aesthetics, and a criticism of literature, drama and music. The style and the range and integration of interests are alike individual, ambitious and arresting. The book is a distinguished personal work, of permanent interest and value.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book changed philosophy. When it was originally published it was both exhilirating and astonishing - for its daring disregard of disciplinary boundaries....No reader of Cavell should be surprised to observe that, now as then, new forms of reductionism, scientism, and sheer flight prove appealing to those for whom a complex human understanding is more than their hearts can bear." Martha Nussbaum, author of Upheavals of Thought

"This book is still the best introduction to the wide-ranging thoughts and the powerful imagination of one of America's most distinguished men of letters. In it, Cavell weaves together Wittgenstein's reactions fo philosophical skepticism with Shakespeare's descriptions of human needs, and J.L. Austin's appeals to 'the ordinary' with reflections on how art lets us see familiar objects anew. No one since William James has been so successful at re-humanizing philosophy - at rescuing that academic discipline from hyperprofessional self-absorption." Richard Rorty, author of Contingency, Irony and Solidarity --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Book Description

The essays span and connect topics in the philosophy of language, aesthetics, and a criticism of literature, drama and music. This is a remarkable, and now famous, volume of philosophical studies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 26, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521290481
• ISBN-13: 978-0521290487
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stanley Cavell's Place in History, September 30, 2002

By 

Anthony Damato "Law professor" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Must We Mean What We Say?: A Book of Essays (Paperback)

I've never met Professor Stanley Cavell, and though I've emailed him he has obviously been too busy to respond. Nevertheless, in my view, his books will be read long after many philosophers of the twentieth century are buried and forgotten. The reason can be summed up in a single word: insight. Rarely has there been a more perspicuous observer of motion pictures than Professor Cavell. To read his commentary on movies is to enhance one's movie-viewing experience. He sees things that no one else sees, he sees relations that are missed by others. My enjoyment of films has been substantially augmented by my reading of Professor Cavell's essays. He has opened a new dimension for me. I am less impressed by his infatuation with performatives in his book "Must We Mean What We Say?" but, to the extent that performatives opened for him a door to performances, it was an intellectual journey well worth undertaking. We are all his beneficiaries and all in his eternal debt.