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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2023

Jonathan Havercroft
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

The introduction argues that Cavell’s democratic perfectionism is uniquely situated to respond to the democratic crisis of post-truth politics. It argues that post-truth politics is a political response to the epistemological problem of skepticism. As a first step in exploring democratic perfectionism, the introduction offers a brief overview of Cavell’s interpretation of skepticism and its salience for politics. Section 2 provides a preliminary sketch of skepticism. Section 3 expands what Cavell means by responsiveness. Section 4 discusses how these two concepts shape democratic perfectionism. Section 5 asks, where is the politics in Cavell’s writings? While Cavell never wrote a text that was explicitly about political philosophy, his thoughts on politics are scattered throughout his writings. An initial obstacle to interpreting his democratic perfectionism is identifying where in his thought to look for those ideas. Section 6 explains how these themes are analyzed throughout the remainder of the book.

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Chapter
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Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism
Community, Individuality, and Post-Truth Politics
, pp. 1 - 25
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Jonathan Havercroft, University of Southampton
  • Book: Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009322546.001
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  • Introduction
  • Jonathan Havercroft, University of Southampton
  • Book: Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009322546.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Jonathan Havercroft, University of Southampton
  • Book: Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009322546.001
Available formats
×