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William
Rothman summarizes the idea, Cavell "takes it to be our primary task as human beings—at once our deepest wish, whether or not we know this about ourselves, and our moral obligation—to become more fully human, to realize our humanity in our lives in the world, which always requires the simultaneous acknowledgment of the humanity of others (our acknowledgment of them, and theirs of us)."
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properties to a high degree or realizes what is central to human nature. Different versions of the theory may disagree about what the relevant properties are and so disagree about the content of the good life. But they share the foundational idea that what is good, ultimately, is the development of human nature.
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This moral theory starts from an account of the good life, or the intrinsically desirable life. And it characterizes this life in a distinctive way. Certain properties, it says, constitute human nature or are definitive of humanity—they make humans human. The good life, it then says, develops these
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develops the concept of moral perfectionism as the idea that there is an unattained but attainable self that one ought to strive to reach. Moral perfectionists believe that the ancient questions such as "Am I living as I am supposed to?" make all the difference in the world and they describe the
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essays. According to the view he advanced in the 1869 publication, "Culture is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: " seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and
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The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world, and, through this
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view that the good action is that which will cause the least harm, or the greatest good for the greatest number. For Cavell, moral perfectionism is an outlook or register of thought, a way of thinking about morality expressed thematically in certain works of philosophy, literature and film. As
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address in their witty give- and-take, for example, are, as Cavell puts it, "formulated less well by questions concerning what they ought to do, what it would be best or right for them to do, than by the question how they shall live their lives, what kind of persons they aspire to be."
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was of the view that there are no universal parameters of perfection. Individuals and cultures choose those values that, for them, represent the ideal of perfection. For example, one individual may view education as leading perfection, while to another beauty is the highest ideal.
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is the goal. If I were condemned to choose between a humanity materially happy, glutted after the manner of a flock of sheep in a field, and a humanity existing in misery, but from which emanated, here and there, some eternal truth, it is on the latter my choice would fall.
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knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits, which we now follow staunchly but mechanically, vainly imagining that there is a virtue in following them staunchly which makes up for the mischief of following them mechanically.
192:" and "the melodrama of the unknown woman". Cavell's argument is that these films are illustrative of moral perfectionism (and, more specifically, Emersonian perfectionism).The moral questions couples in remarriage comedies like
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commitment we ought to have in ways that seem, but are not, impossibly demanding. We do so because it is only in the keeping such an "impossible" view in mind that one can strive for one's "unattained but attainable self."
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The true role of collective existence ... is to learn, to discover, to know. Eating, drinking, sleeping, living, in a word, is a mere accessory. In this respect, we are not distinguished from the brute.
239:). While the individual is responsible for living a virtuous life, the state should be limited to the regulation of human coexistence.
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Immanuel Kant: Ăśber den
Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht fĂĽr die Praxis, AA VIII, 273-314, hier 291
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perfectionism," the form of moral perfectionism he embraces and defends, not as a theory of moral philosophy comparable to
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in all its forms. A society devoted to perfectionist principles may not produce happy citizens—far from it.
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Perfectionism, as a moral theory, has a long history and has been addressed by influential philosophers.
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can best promote the good life, it should be adopted over other forms of social organization.
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Must We Kill the Thing We Love? Emersonian
Perfectionism and the Films of Alfred Hitchcock
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Cities of Words: Pedagogical
Letters on a Register of the Moral Life
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Cities of Words: Pedagogical
Letters on a Register of the Moral Life
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characterizes moral perfectionism in general, and what he calls "
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Culture and anarchy; an essay in political and social criticism
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argues that rational perfectionism is, or should be, the
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Perfection means more than—or something different from—
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279:Moreover, in the preface of that text, he wrote:
267:perspective, similar sentiments were expressed by
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223:or pleasure, and perfectionism is distinct from
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472:. Internet Archive. London, Smith, Elder.
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19:Not to be confused with
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184:(1992) by
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74:eudaimonia
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256:Knowledge
221:happiness
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136:Aristotle
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452:(1904).
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