Philsosophy book with King Lear in the intro?

February 20, 2008 3:03 AM

Philosophy book that mentions King Lear in the introduction?

Some years ago, I came across a book on philosophy in a Borders. Reading the introduction, I remember the author mentioning King Lear and Regan, one of Lear's three daughters.

For the life of me I have no idea what the book's title was. I remember finding it rather interesting, but I forgot why I found it interesting.

Philosophical bookworms, please help me!

posted by etoyasu to Religion & Philosophy (2 answers total)

This is probably a Bertrand Russel book, Russel loves quoting Lear- his favorite Shakespeare play I think- so you might try a quick browse on amazon to see if you recognize any descriptions...
Now I think about it, it may well be his "The Conquest of Happiness"; did the cover have bananas on it?
posted by Claypole at 8:46 AM on February 20, 2008

sounds like it could be Michael Ignatieff's The Needs of Strangers (see Amazon's Look Inside feature); my second guess would be that it might have been something by or about Stanley Cavell, who's written on King Lear (e.g., and most famously, in Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare and Must We Mean What We Say?); third guess, something from Martha Nussbaum?
posted by davemack at 4:04 PM on February 21, 2008