Stanley Cavell and Film: Scepticism and Self-Reliance at the Cinema

“Film is made for philosophy,” asserted Stanley Cavell. In addition to his work on scepticism, morality, and the intentions and meanings of ordinary language, the American philosopher wrote fascinatingly about cinema, arguing that film can reveal new ground for thinking through old philosophical problems.

In this book, Catherine Wheatley draws upon Cavell's explicitly film-inspired works, key philosophical concepts and autobiographical writings, examining his analyses of films from Hollywoo...