Emerson, l’éducation et la démocratie

The paper aims to present and defend Cavell’s reading of moral perfectionism as an alternative political approach. For several decades, Stanley Cavell has been working to make Emerson’s voice reheard in the core of American philosophy. This activity, though, is not simply historical rehabilitation. What appears very clearly in, e.g., his 2003 collection Emerson’s Transcendental Etudes, but as early as in the 1990 work Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome, is that Cavell also wants to make heard the present-day political pertinence of Emerson’s thinking and conception of democracy. Cavell wants to criticize either the interpretation of Emerson’s tonality which would make him a precursor of liberal individualism, or a precursor of progressive rhetoric, à la Dewey. Cavell has given himself the task of clearly differentiating Emerson from these trends. The author wants to show, however, that transcendentalism and pragmatism together as inheritors of Emerson’s voice allow us to rediscover something essential to democracy: possession of one’s voice – a question equally at the heart of Emerson’s philosophy, under the form of our capacity to speak, to stand up and speak, for oneself or for others as the very demand to trust oneself, which Cavell later calls the “arrogation of voice”

La volonté de voir : Éthique et perception morale du sens

Le présent article propose une approche pragmatique de l’éthique inspirée de la seconde philosophie de Wittgenstein. Après avoir présenté le projet d’une éthique « sans ontologie », déplacée des concepts généraux vers l’exploration des pratiques et la vie ordinaire, elle met en évidence la nécessité d’une compétence éthique propre, articulée sur la capacité à voir le sens de l’action et sur la perception de l’importance. C’est à donner un contenu à ce concept de l’importance qu’on peut alors s’attacher, pour définir le sens moral comme base de la perception morale.This paper proposes a pragmatic approach to ethics inspired by Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. It first presents the project of an “Ethics without ontology”, moved from general concepts to the exploration of ordinary practices, and shows the necessity of defining a specific moral competence, based on the capacity to perceive the meaning of an action or a situation and to perceive “importance” (of moments, people, patterns). The concept of importance, then, needs to be defined in order to put moral sense (and significance) at the centre of moral perception

Pragmatism, Transcendentalism, and Perfectionism

The relation between Pragmatism, Transcendentalism, and Perfectionism is both obvious and difficult, and this is what prompted us to edit the present issue of the Journal. The relation is obvious, because the history of American Philosophy is deeply textured by this relation, and the transition from Transcendentalism to Pragmatism has been historically attested. Difficult, because these traditions seem to deny one another. Pragmatist philosophers have often presented themselves as the founder..

L’ordinaire transatlantique

RésuméL’auteur analyse le thème de l’ordinaire tel qu’il s’élabore par des allers et retours transatlantiques, à partir du transcendantalisme américain. Même si l’idée de connaissance, de croyance ordinaire ou d’homme ordinaire jouent un rôle important dans la tradition philosophique, en particulier empiriste, l’idée d’ordinaire en tant que rapport de proximité/étrangeté de notre langage au monde, tel que Stanley Cavell notamment le définit, n’émerge qu’au xixe siècle aux États-Unis avec Emerson et Thoreau, pour se réinventer en Europe avec la philosophie du langage ordinaire (Wittgenstein et Austin), tradition vite oubliée qui réapparaîtra, sous une forme transformée et sociologique, en Amérique, avec l’œuvre de Goffman, qui articule l’héritage pragmatiste et la philosophie du langage ordinaire en vue d’une description de «ce qui se passe». L’ordinaire se révèle ainsi une connexion cachée entre Amérique et Europe, et entre philosophie et sociologie.AbstractThe author analyses the theme of the Ordinary as it is elaborated through trans-atlantic passages, beginning with American Transcendentalism. The ideas of ordinary knowledge and beliefs and of the ordinary man do play a significant role in the philosophical tradition, e.g. Empiricism; the idea of the Ordinary, however, seen as a relation of nextness (closeness/foreignness) of our words to the World (as Cavell describes it) first appears in the US with Emerson and Thoreau, then reappears in European ordinary language philosophy (Wittgenstein and Austin), a short-lived tradition which reemerges later in the US in Goffman’s work. Articulating the inheritance of both pragmatism and of ordinary language philosophy with his project of description of «what is going on», Goffman’s «frame analysis» reveals a hidden connection and between America and Europe, and philosophy and sociology as well

Transcendentalism and the Ordinary

For Stanley Cavell, the specific and contemporary theme of the ordinary sets off from America and the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau, in order to reinvent itself in Europe with ordinary language philosophy – Wittgenstein and Austin. But in order to understand this, it is necessary to perceive what Cavell calls, inspired by Wittgenstein and Thoreau, “the uncanniness of the ordinary,” inherent to its anthropological thematization. In his preface to the recent work of Veena Das, Life a..

L’éducation des adultes comme philosophie morale

Ce que j’apprends depuis l’enfance n’est validé, par la communauté dont je suis membre, que par et dans l’usage que j’en fais en divers contextes. Mais pour un adulte, rien ne va de soi pour autant. L’adulte continue son éducation, apprend des choses nouvelles, en faisant confiance à sa propre expérience : il s’agit de mettre en cause les conventions, en tant qu’elles ne sont pas pensées par moi. Ce perfectionnement de soi peut être vu comme une volonté de renaissance, que permet la philosophie.What I have been learning since childhood is validated, by the community to which I belong, only by and through the use I make of it in different contexts. But for an adult, nothing is obvious, however. The adult continues his/her education, learn new things, trusting in his/her own experience : it comes to challenging conventions, as they are not thought by me. This self-improvement can be seen as a will to be reborn, that philosophy allows

Entretien avec Sandra Laugier (Alexandre Gefen)

Sandra Laugier revient dans cet entretien sur les fondements anglo-saxons de la théorie de la vulnérabilité et notamment sur l’importance de Stanley Cavell, sa dimension anthropologique comme sociale. La vulnérabilité de l’expression humaine, celle de l’être en tant qu’il est exposé aux ratages de la communication résonne dans la responsabilité de la parole littéraire.Sandra Laugier is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, she has contributed to the popularization in France of the ordinary language philosophy, gender studies and the ethics of care. In this interview, she discusses the foundations of the theory of vulnerability and in particular the importance of Stanley Cavell, its anthropological as well as social dimension

Introduction : Pour un programme d’inspiration cavellienne d’analyse des séries TV

Cet article introductif propose un aperçu synthétique des apports de Stanley Cavell dans ses dialogues entre philosophie et cinéma. Il insiste sur le roc de l’ordinaire (dans le sillage d’Emerson, Thoreau, Wittgenstein et Austin), sur les liens entre perfectionnisme moral et radicalité démocratique, sur sa portée éducative et auto-éducative, ainsi que sur l’importance de considérer les cultures ordinaires (cinéma, séries TV, etc.) comme de véritables arts démocratiques. Il dessine ensuite ce que pourraient être certains axes d’un programme d’inspiration cavellienne d’étude des séries TV pour la philosophie et les sciences sociales. Enfin, il présente les différentes contributions de ce numéro de TV/Series consacré à « Perfectionnisme et séries télévisées. Hommage à Stanley Cavell (1926-2018) ».This introductive article propose a brief overview of the contributions of Stanley Cavell in his dialogues between philosophy and cinema. It emphasizes the rock of the ordinary (in the wake of Emerson, Thoreau, Wittgenstein and Austin), the links between moral perfectionism and democratic radicality, its educational and self-educational scope, as well as the importance of considering ordinary cultures (cinema, TV series, etc.) as true democratic arts. It then sketches out what some of the axes of a Cavellian-inspired program could be for the study of TV series in philosophy and social sciences. Finally, it presents the various contributions of this issue of TV/Series devoted to “Perfectionism and TV series. A tribute to Stanley Cavell (1926-2018)”

Pragmatism, Transcendentalism, and Perfectionism

The relation between Pragmatism, Transcendentalism, and Perfectionism is both obvious and difficult, and this is what prompted us to edit the present issue of the Journal. The relation is obvious, because the history of American Philosophy is deeply textured by this relation, and the transition from Transcendentalism to Pragmatism has been historically attested. Difficult, because these traditions seem to deny one another. Pragmatist philosophers have often presented themselves as the founder..

VOZ E REIVINDICAÇÃO:: CAVELL E A POLÍTICA DA VOZ

A presente tradução apresenta ao leitor brasileiro o trabalho de Sandra Laugier sobre a dimensão da voz em seu aspecto simultaneamente individual e político. Para isso, a autora vale-se da filosofia da linguagem (Cavell e Wittgenstein). Nosso objetivo com a tradução é promover as discussões entre as áreas da filosofia da linguagem e das teorias da enunciação