What measures justice? What justifies happiness? Emersonian moral perfectionism and the cultivation of political emotions

This article will highlight the distinctive role of Cavell in renewing a dawn of American philosophy. Following Emerson’s remark, ‘the inmost in due time becomes the outmost’, Cavell develops his distinctive line of antifoundationalist thought. To show how unique and valuable Cavell’s endeavor to resuscitate Emerson’s and Thoreau’s voice in American philosophy is, this paper discusses the political implications of Cavell’s Emersonian moral perfectionism. This involves a reconsideration of what measures justice and what justifies happiness. While Cavell is sometimes said to be too personal and too subjective to be political, I shall argue that his Emersonian perfectionism, with its concomitant idea of the conversation of justice, is in fact thoroughly political and democratic. I shall illustrate this by examining his writing on a Hollywood film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). The film shows vividly that happiness is a condition for achieving democracy from within. In conclusion, I shall propose that a readiness for the risk inherent in speech, rather than, say, acquiescing in received ideas or hiding behind the words of others, is at the heart of perfectionist education for globally minded citizens

Aesthetics · Conversation · Democracy · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Happiness · Perfectionism (psychology · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Psychology · Social Psychology · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications

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  Open Access•Léa Boman•Journal of Philosophy of Education•2022

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• The Senses of Walden

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• Political Emotions

  Martha C Nussbaum, Martha Nussbaum•Political Emotions•2013

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• In Quest of the Ordinary

  Stanley Cavell•In Quest of the Ordinary•1988

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  Stanley Cavell•Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome•1991

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• Hilary Putnam interviewed by Naoko Saito and Paul Standish

  Open Access•Paul Standish•Journal of Philosophy of Education•2014

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• Stanley Cavell in Conversation with Paul Standish

  Open Access•Stanley Cavell, Paul Standish•Journal of Philosophy of Education•2012

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• The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924

  James Gouinlock, Jo Ann Boydston•Philosophy and Phenomenological…•1980

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  Stanley Cavell•The claim of reason•1999

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• A Pitch of Philosophy

  Stanley Cavell•Pitch of Philosophy•1994

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