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Chapter 1 - Austen and Austin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2022

Eric Reid Lindstrom
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
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Summary

Chapter 1, “Austen and Austin,” presents the details of the book’s central proposition that Jane Austen’s novels are not conduct books sharing preset values but philosophical studies of conduct more in the J.L. Austinian sense. The chapter claims that Austen – in common with the grouping of ordinary language philosophers I engage in this book: Austin, Wittgenstein, and Cavell (most of all) – does not view perception itself as a philosophical problem of major interest. My approach departs from the widespread view that Austen’s fiction reflects the mitigated skepticism of eighteenth-century empiricists and anticipates modernist literary impressionism. In the words of her Victorian critic G.H. Lewes, Austen’s epistemological project includes her cultivation of a prose style not visually hyper-realized, but “content to make us know” through the testing and textures of dialogue and character.

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Chapter
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Jane Austen and Other Minds
Ordinary Language Philosophy in Literary Fiction
, pp. 22 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Austen and Austin
  • Eric Reid Lindstrom, University of Vermont
  • Book: Jane Austen and Other Minds
  • Online publication: 04 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009206976.002
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  • Austen and Austin
  • Eric Reid Lindstrom, University of Vermont
  • Book: Jane Austen and Other Minds
  • Online publication: 04 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009206976.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Austen and Austin
  • Eric Reid Lindstrom, University of Vermont
  • Book: Jane Austen and Other Minds
  • Online publication: 04 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009206976.002
Available formats
×