This is the first full-length philosophical study of the work of Stanley Cavell, best known for his seminal contributions to the fields of film studies, Shakespearian literary criticism, and the confluence of psychoanalysis and literary theory. It is not fully appreciated that Cavell's project originated in his interpretation of Austin's and Wittgenstein's ordinary-language philosophy and is given unity by an abiding concern with the nature and the varying cultural manifestations of the skeptical impulse in modernity. This book elucidates the essentially philosophical roots and trajectory of...
This is the first full-length philosophical study of the work of Stanley Cavell, best known for his seminal contributions to the fields of film studie...
What does it mean to think of philosophy in the condition of modernism, in which its relation to its past and future has become a relevant problem? This book argues that the writings of Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard are best understood as responsive (each in their own way) to such questions. Through detailed analysis of these authors' most influential texts, Stephen Mulhall reorients our sense of the philosophical work each text aims to accomplish, engendering a critical dialogue between them from which the elements of a new conception of philosophy might emerge.
What does it mean to think of philosophy in the condition of modernism, in which its relation to its past and future has become a relevant problem? Th...
Heidegger is one of the most controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. A difficult and powerful philosopher, his work requires careful reading. Being and Time was his first major book and remains his most influential work. Heidegger and Being and Time introduces and assesses: Heidegger's life and the background of Being and Time; the ideas and text of Being and Time; Heidegger's importance to philosophy and to the intellectual life of this century. Ideal for anyone coming to Heidegger for the first time, this guide will be vital for all...
Heidegger is one of the most controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. A difficult and powerful philosopher, his work requires careful reading....
Few movies of recent times have caught and shocked our imagination as the Alien cinematic quartet and the quest of Sigourney Weaver's Flight Lieutenant Ellen Ripley. In this gripping and lucidly written book, Mulhall shows why these films fascinate us, by showing that they are compelling examples of philosophy in action.
Bringing a philosopher's eye to cinema, he argues that the Alien films take us deep into the question of what it is to be human. By developing the sexual significance of the aliens themselves and of Ripley's...
Few movies of recent times have caught and shocked our imagination as the Alien cinematic quartet and the quest of Sigourney Weaver's Flight...
Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and hence the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? In Philosophical Myths of the Fall, Stephen Mulhall identifies and evaluates a surprising ethical-religious dimension in the work of three highly influential philosophers--Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. He asks: Is the Christian idea of humanity as structurally flawed something that these three thinkers aim simply to criticize? Or do they, rather, end up by reproducing secular variants of the same mythology?
Mulhall argues that...
Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and hence the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? In Philosoph...
Based on the author's Page-Barbour lectures, delivered at the University of Virginia in 2005, The Conversation of Humanity critically examines the idea that the nature of language can best be understood in terms of the model or figure of conversation. According to this idea, language has an essentially dialogical or discursive structure, reflecting the ways in which different dimensions of the cultural economy bear upon each other. Mulhall addresses the peculiar way in which philosophy must be understood both as one of those interlocking elements and as the place in which the...
Based on the author's Page-Barbour lectures, delivered at the University of Virginia in 2005, The Conversation of Humanity critically examin...
A personal glimpse inside the mind of a leading philosopher
The Cavell Reader is an introduction to one of the 20th century's most influential American philosophers. Stanley Cavell was well-known for the broad scope of his writing, which is a major theme of this book; topics include aesthetics, psychoanalysis, film theory, literary criticism, religion, Austin, Emerson, Wittgenstein, and more. Presented in a sequence that illustrates Cavell's evolution of thought through key periods and phases, these pieces provide an overview of the man behind the words, and serve as...
A personal glimpse inside the mind of a leading philosopher
The Cavell Reader is an introduction to one of the 20th century's ...
Stephen Mulhall presents a series of multiply interrelated essays which together make up an original study of selfhood (subjectivity or personal identity). He explores a variety of articulations (in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the arts) of the idea that selfhood is best conceived as a matter of non-self-identity--for example, as becoming or self-overcoming, or as being what one is not and not being what one is, or as being doubled or divided. Philosophically, a sustained reading of the work of Nietzsche and Sartre is central to this project, although Wittgenstein is also fundamental to...
Stephen Mulhall presents a series of multiply interrelated essays which together make up an original study of selfhood (subjectivity or personal ident...
Can we talk meaningfully about God? The theological movement known as Grammatical Thomism affirms that religious language is nonsensical, because the reality of God is beyond our capacity for expression. Stephen Mulhall critically evaluates the claims of this movement (as exemplified in the work of Herbert McCabe and David Burrell) to be a legitimate inheritor of Wittgenstein's philosophical methods as well as Aquinas's theological project. The major obstacle to this claim is that Grammatical Thomism makes the nonsensicality of religious language when applied to God a touchstone of Thomist...
Can we talk meaningfully about God? The theological movement known as Grammatical Thomism affirms that religious language is nonsensical, because the ...
The first edition of Stephen Mulhall's acclaimed On Film was a study of the four Alien films, and made the highly original and controversial argument that films themselves can philosophise. In its second edition, On Film increased its breadth and vision considerably to encompass films such as the Mission: Impossible series and Steven Spielberg's Minority Report.
In this significantly expanded third edition Stephen Mulhall adds new chapters on the Jason Bourne films, the fourth Mission: Impossible movie, JJ Abrams' Star Trek...
The first edition of Stephen Mulhall's acclaimed On Film was a study of the four Alien films, and made the highly original and contro...
