What measures justice? What justifies happiness? Emersonian moral perfectionism and the cultivation of political emotions

Abstract

This article will highlight the distinctive role of Cavell in renewing a dawn of American philosophy. Following Emerson’s remark, ‘the inmost in due time becomes the outmost’, Cavell develops his distinctive line of antifoundationalist thought. To show how unique and valuable Cavell’s endeavor to resuscitate Emerson’s and Thoreau’s voice in American philosophy is, this paper discusses the political implications of Cavell’s Emersonian moral perfectionism. This involves a reconsideration of what measures justice and what justifies happiness. While Cavell is sometimes said to be too personal and too subjective to be political, I shall argue that his Emersonian perfectionism, with its concomitant idea of the conversation of justice, is in fact thoroughly political and democratic. I shall illustrate this by examining his writing on a Hollywood film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). The film shows vividly that happiness is a condition for achieving democracy from within. In conclusion, I shall propose that a readiness for the risk inherent in speech, rather than, say, acquiescing in received ideas or hiding behind the words of others, is at the heart of perfectionist education for globally minded citizens.

Keywords:

• Cavell’s Emersonian moral perfectionism
• the cultivation of political emotions
• justice
• Emerson
• Thoreau
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Notes

1. Global Ethics and Justice Research Symposium was organized by the Department of Management Studies at Aalto University School of Business and the Academy of Finland (Friday 29 August 2014, Aalto University School of Business, Lecture hall A-201, Main building, Runeberginkatu 14–16).

2. Program notes for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (British Film Institute, Documentation Units). The film itself was screened on 28 December 2010 at British Film Institute.