Cavell's Must We Mean What We Say? at 50

In 1969 Stanley Cavell''s Must We Mean What We Say? revolutionized philosophy of ordinary language aesthetics ethics tragedy literature music art criticism and modernism. This volume of new essays offers a multi-faceted exploration of Cavell''s first and most important book fifty years after its publication. The key subjects which animate Cavell''s book are explored in detail: ordinary language aesthetics modernism skepticism forms of life philosophy and literature tragedy and the self the questions of voice and audience jazz and sound Wittgenstein Austin Beckett Kierkegaard Shakespeare. The essays make Cavell''s complex style and sometimes difficult thought accessible to a new generation of students and scholars. They offer a way into Cavell''s unique philosophical voice conveying its seminal importance as an intellectual intervention in American thought and culture and showing how its philosophical radicality remains of lasting significance for contemporary philosophy American philosophy literary studies and cultural studies.