Internal Relations and the Possibility of Evil

In this article, I examine Cavell’s understanding and deployment of the categories of ‘evil’ and the ‘monstrous’ in The Claim of Reason. Arguing that these notions cannot be understood apart from Cavell’s reliance on the notion of an ‘internal relation,’ I trace this notion to its Wittgensteinian ro...

Celý popis

Uloženo v:
Podrobná bibliografie
Vydáno v:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejpap,
Hlavní autor: Shuster, Martin
Médium: Article ou chapitre numérique
Jazyk:Anglais
Vydáno: European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 2017
On-line přístup:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Popis
Shrnutí:In this article, I examine Cavell’s understanding and deployment of the categories of ‘evil’ and the ‘monstrous’ in The Claim of Reason. Arguing that these notions cannot be understood apart from Cavell’s reliance on the notion of an ‘internal relation,’ I trace this notion to its Wittgensteinian roots. Ultimately, I show that Cavell’s view of evil allows us to navigate between two horns of a classic dilemma in thinking about evil: it allows us to see evil as neither a privation nor as a positive force with supra-human potency.