Abstract

Stanley Cavell’s long-awaited book is largely a revision of his 1961 Harvard dissertation, entitled The Claim to Rationality, but "it is no more properly speaking a revision than its predecessor was properly speaking a dissertation". Cavell notes in his foreword four "periods" or "strata" of writing spanning nearly two decades. Parts 2 and 3 are drawn from the dissertation, though "heavily edited", as is much of part 1, while other portions of parts 1 and most of part 4 were composed as recently as 1974-77. Given this long gestation, plus Cavell’s Daedalian style and exquisite self-consciousness, it is no surprise that this dense and subtle book defies easy description.