Abstract

Stanley Cavell’s approach to self-knowledge is unusual within analytic philosophy. Even so, the issue is central to his work. In this article, I begin by briefly characterizing the most common approach to self-knowledge in analytic philosophy and then identify Cavell’s reasons for taking distance from it, tracing them to his Wittgensteinian approach to action and language. Cavell is thus led to deal with self-knowledge centering not on privileged access or the incorrigibility of statements such as ‘I’m in pain’ but instead on the themes of skepticism, acknowledgment, and voice. I end by exemplifying the work done by such themes in his writings on Shakespearean tragedy.