Thinking Through Film: Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies

ISBN-13: 9781405193436 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 288 str.

Damian Cox; Michael P. Levine

Opis

An introduction to philosophy through film, Thinking Through Film: Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies combines the exploration of fundamental philosophical issues with the experience of viewing films, and provides an engaging reading experience for undergraduate students, philosophy enthusiasts and film buffs alike.§An in-depth yet accessible introduction to the philosophy raised by films, film spectatorship and film-making§Provides 12 self-contained, close discussions of individual films from across genres§Films discussed include Total Recall, Minority Report, La Promesse, Funny Games, Ikuru, The Dark Knight, Memento, AI and more§Explores concepts that span epistemology, metaphysics, fate, choice, robot love, time travel, personal identity, spectacle, ethics, luck, regret, consequentialism, deontology and the philosophy of film itself§A uniquely flexible resource for courses in philosophy and film that encourages student reflection, as well as being an engaging read for the film enthusiast

Spis treści

Preface vii

Acknowledgments x

Part I Philosophy and Film 1

1 Why Film and Philosophy? 3

2 Philosophy and Film Spectatorship 23

Part II Epistemology and Metaphysics 47

3 Knowing What′s What in Total Recall 49

4 Ontology and The Matrix 65

5 It′s All in the Mind: AI Artifi cial Intelligence and Robot Love 79

6 La Jetée and the Promise of Time Travel 98

Part III The Human Condition 113

7 Fate and Choice: The Philosophy of Minority Report 115

8 Personal Identity: The Case of Memento 132

9 The Spectacle of Horror: Funny Games 147

10 Looking for Meaning in All the Wrong Places: Ikiru ("To Live") 170

Part IV Ethics and Values 189

11 Crimes and Misdemeanors and the Fragility of Moral Motivation 191

12 The Lives of Others: Moral Luck and Regret 209

13 The Dark Knight: Batman on Deontology and Consequentialism 228

14 Dangerous Childhood: La Promesse and the Possibility of Virtue 245

Index 265

O autorze

Damian Cox is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Bond University. He is co–author of Integrity and the Fragile Self with Michael Levine and Marguerite La Caze in 2003. Cox has written widely on philosophical topics including ethics, value theory, metaphysics and epistemology.

Michael Levine is professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, and has co–authored Politics Most Unusual: Violence, Sovereignty and Democracy in the ′War on Terror′ with Damian Cox and Saul Newman (2009). He is currently working on the topic of the role of regret and self–assessment in our moral lives.

Blurb

Thinking Through Film: Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies examines a broad range of philosophical issues though film, as well as issues about the nature of film itself. Using film as a means of philosophizing, it combines the experience of viewing films with the exploration of fundamental philosophical issues. It offers readers the opportunity to learn about philosophy and film together by bringing them together in an engaging way. It also raises philosophical questions about films and the experience of films.

Film is an extremely valuable way of exploring and discussing topics in philosophy. Readers are introduced to a broad range of philosophical issues though film, as well as to issues about the nature of film itself – a blend missing in most recent books on philosophy and film. Cox and Levine bring a critical eye to philosophical–film discussions throughout.