Abstract

The specificity and the scope of Cavell’s philosophical contribution, when not underestimated, is often not fully understood. For this reason, it seemed to me necessary to reflect on its potential. By focusing on Cavell as a reader of Wittgenstein, this paper offers two related considerations. On the one hand, a reevaluation of the role of philosophy (the idea that not only theories and arguments but also images and dispositions are essential ingredients of philosophy redefines the boundaries between philosophy and ethics). On the other hand, this paper draws attention to an alternative way of assessing the issue of other minds as being not merely an epistemological problem but rather the intellectualization of our disappointment with the ultimate groundlessness of our own criteria for knowledge.