From Deflection to Acknowledgment

Cavell and the Problem of Others

Abstract

The collection of Stanley Cavell’s essays recently published under the title Here and There offers a wealth of delights. For me, the most valuable of these has been the chance to follow Cavell as he appraises his earlier writings in light of his subsequent reflections. I have found “Notes Mostly about Empathy” especially illuminating. This essay revisits ideas that Cavell first broached in “Knowing and Acknowledging” and subsequently developed in the last part of The Claim of Reason.