Cavell and the Achievement of Selfhood

Abstract

Here is a passage from the discussion of rhythm in music in Hegel’s Aesthetics that will, I suggest, help us to make sense of some important ideas in Cavell about the achievement of selfhood. This runs some risk of explicating the obscure, Cavell, by reference to the unintelligible, Hegel, but Hegel also helps us here specifically to focus on the ontology and ontogeny of selfhood.