Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 1. Sunday afternoons 2. The unruly body and Goffman 3. Remembering the past 4. The moral career 5. Failure and retirement 6. The lives of others 7. Organicism 8. The lure of science 9. But why then do we read biographies? 10. A sense of humour 11. The two directions 12. Aesthetics 13. The meaning of life 14. Pessimism and suicide 15. Death 16. Conclusion Afterword by Nicholas Bunnin Major works of Frank Cioffi Index

Promotional Information

An elegant, original insight into the thoughts, opinions and work of Frank Cioffi, presenting a complete picture of the man and the philosopher.

About the Author

Frank Cioffi was an American philosopher educated in New York and Oxford. He taught at the University of Singapore, the University of Kent and the University of Essex, where he was a founding member of the Department of Philosophy. His work centered on Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He died in January 2012. David Ellis is Emeritus Professor of Literature at the University of Kent, UK. He is author of Memoirs of a Leavisite: The decline and fall of Cambridge English (2013) and The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, fiction and modern biographies (2012). Nicholas Bunnin is the Director of the Philosophy Project at the Institute for Chinese Studies in Oxford and a Visiting Professor of Chinese Philosophy at King’s College, London. He is an editor of Blackwell’s Companion to Philosophy and their Dictionary of Western Philosophy.

Reviews

The Philosopher in Shirt-Sleeves is a readable and affectionate memoir. … I never met Cioffi, but having read this book I wish I had.
*Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews*

Ellis's book should promote renewed interest in Frank's published works. But even more, it should prompt us to engage in the sort of reflective concern with human life which was Frank's passion.
*Philosophical Investigations*

Frank Cioffi was a charismatic, practising, speaking philosopher. In meeting him, one felt philosophy was palpable in the room, as alive as you could ever experience it. Ellis's book puts this across. It captures the peripatetic, eclectic, vibrant and synthesizing genius that was Cioffi; and this is more difficult to do than to list his special theoretical achievements (which it also does).
*Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire, UK*

Philosophy began, and still thrives best, in the medium of conversation. This book provides an affectionate but clear-eyed and penetrating portrait of a philosopher whose distinctive talents found their best expression in that medium. I very much hope that this engaging conspectus of Frank Cioffi's life-long preoccupation with the various modes of human understanding will encourage a renewed interest in his under-appreciated body of work.
*Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, New College, Oxford University, UK*

David Ellis has written a fascinating and intensely humane portrait of the philosopher Frank Cioffi, which is completed by Nicholas Bunnin's extremely helpful chapter on the philosophical context for Cioffi's work. Frank Cioffi was an extraordinarily gifted teacher and the man who, in 1983, persuaded me to study philosophy. I very much hope that this book persuades many others to read Cioffi's work and take up his compelling vision of the philosophical life.
*Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy, the New School, USA*

The fullest expression of Frank Cioffi's manifold talents was in the art of conversation – after an hour with Frank, the world seemed more vivid, ideas seemed to dance with life, and laughter echoed even amidst the ruins. In this admirable and charming book, David Ellis captures the vibrant qualities of Frank Cioffi’s conversation, his joy in ideas, his perpetual probing and questioning, and his intellectual passion. To those who knew him, this volume will be a treasured memorial – to those who were unacquainted with him, it will be a delightful memoir of a remarkable man.
*Peter Hacker, Emeritus Research Fellow of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK*