Onward with Stanley Cavell

International scholars explore the enduring legacy of philosopher Stanley Cavell by engaging with his posthumous volume, Here and There: Sites of Philosophy (2022). The contributors chart connections to the rest of Cavell’s work, offering an essential guide to his impact on the arts and humanities today.

Stanley Cavell (1926–2018) was one of the most significant and field-shaping figures in contemporary philosophy. Onward with Stanley Cavell offers the first major investigation of his legacy and nachlass, providing fourteen insightful essays that engage with the posthumous volume, Here and There: Sites of Philosophy (2022), its connections to the rest of his work, and its broader implications for the future of thought.

Gathering an international group of interdisciplinary scholars, this collection explores the vitality of Cavell’s afterlife and the continued urgency of his writing. The chapters are organized into four thematic areas—Futures of Philosophy, The Ordinary Life of Language, A Mood for Psychoanalysis, and Thinking American Thought—reflecting the capacious and enduring nature of Cavell’s work. From his deep engagements with Wittgenstein, Austin, and Emerson to his forays into the philosophy of music, the volume tracks how Cavell’s voice continues to resonate across the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

At once an up-close encounter with the best of Cavellian criticism and an invitation for readers to chart their own new directions in scholarship, it will appeal to specialists and students in media studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and related fields, as well as the general reader interested in the impact of one of the most important modern philosophers.

Introduction: Further Considerations of Stanley Cavell’s Posthumous Reception Sandra Laugier, Mathias Girel and David LaRocca

I. Futures of Philosophy
1. Like a Hand: Receptive Thinking and the Heart of Futurity in Stanley Cavell Thomas Carlson
2. Skepticism for the Future: Reinterpreting Skepticism in the Light of the “Exhaustion of Possibilities” Élise Domenach
3. The Outsider Within: Cavell, Derrida, and Deconstruction Stephen Mulhall
4. Meaning It: Music, Cavell, and the Sense of Occasion Paul Standish

II. The Ordinary Life of Language
5. Tracing Lines of Thought in “The World as Things: Collecting Thoughts on Collecting” Veena Das
6. Language and the Body Martine de Gaudemar
7. The Idea of a Here and a There as Sites of Philosophy Jean-Philippe Narboux

III. A Mood for Psychoanalysis
8. Becoming Passive: Notes Mostly about “Notes Mostly about Empathy” Jeroen Gerrits
9. Cavell’s Ellipsis Claire Brunet
10. Expressions of Interest in Phillips and Cavell Emma Williams

IV. Thinking American Thought
11. “Undiscussable Differences”?: Stanley Cavell on Allan Bloom and Disappointment David LaRocca
12. Reflections on Wallace Stevens at Mount Holyoke Hugo Clémot
13. America as Experience: Pragmatism and Perfectionism Mathias Girel and Sandra Laugier
14. What is American Philosophy? Russell Goodman

• Edited by Mathias Girel
• Edited by David LaRocca
• Edited by Sandra Laugier