Stanley Cavell (1926–2018): Higher Education and the Development of Voice

Abstract

Stanley Cavell (1926–2018) was an American philosopher who worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, and ordinary language philosophy. Known for his work on Austin, Wittgenstein, Emerson and Thoreau, and for his readings of film and literature, his writing is characterised by the extraordinary breadth of its literary references, and by its interweaving with the autobiographical. This chapter takes two themes from Cavell’s work: the idea of uncommon schooling (that he takes from Thoreau’s Walden), and the education of voice (which he develops from discussions of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood film) to argue that the educational force of Cavell’s work is significant, and as such is central to understanding his thinking. It will show how Cavell’s work offers insights into how we might think about what it means to be educated, and into the nature of a higher education.