Stanley Cavell and the Magic of Hollywood Films

Dan Shaw is a retired professor of philosophy who taught for 32 years at Lock Haven University. He is managing editor of the print journal Film and Philosophy and a member of the Executive Board of the Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts (SPSCVA).

• Defining The Magic: Why Stanley Cavell?Projecting RealityStanley Cavell: Emersonian IndividualistCavell on Nietzsche: The Ascetic Ideal, Eternal Recurrence and "Higher Self"Comedies of Remarriage and the Transfiguration of the CommonplaceHow the Unknown Woman Finds Her Voice in Contesting TearsCavell and Wittgenstein on Skepticism: Redeeming the LawHeidegger and Cavell and Woody Allen: Another WomanHalls of Montezuma and the Utility of WarThoreau, Civil Disobedience and SelmaLockean Liberalism and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Cavell’s Notion of Acknowledgment and Boys Don’t Cry

Dan Shaw’s book clarifies Cavell’s positions on perfectionism, individualism, and skepticism by tracing the philosophical influences upon his works. Then, in a real tour de force, Shaw illustrates Cavell’s views on the power and "magic" of movies by applying his philosophical insights to new and intriguing examples of recent films.