Perfectionnisme democratique et cinema: pistes exploratoires

In: Raisons politiques: études de pensée politique, Heft 2, S. 31-48

Abstract

This article proposes to explore the relations between two "language games" (Wittgenstein): philosophy & cinema. The contemporary American philosopher Stanley Cavell has begun an analysis of passages from a tradition of political thought in the US: the democratic perfectionism embodied by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803), an explorer of self-reliance; & Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), a theoretician & practitioner of "civil disobedience." The article carries this theme to the cinema by looking at two recent Hollywood films: director Ed Harris's Appaloosa (2008) & director McG's Terminator Salvation (2009). Adapted from the source document.