Introducing Philosophy Through Film: Key Texts, Discussion, and Film Selections

From Monty Python and The Matrix to Casablanca and A Clockwork Orange, popular films offer surprisingly perceptive insights into complex philosophical concepts. Introducing Philosophy Through Film combines this novel pedagogical approach with all the virtues of a serious introductory anthology of classical and contemporary philosophical readings. The result is an engaging and effective way to fire the imagination of those new to philosophy. Drawing on a wide range of popular and easily accessible films along with the ideas of a diverse selection of historical and contemporary thinkers this book introduces many of the central areas of philosophical concern, including perception, philosophy of mind, ethics, religion, free will, determinism, and more. Chapter by chapter, the editors offer a discussion of relevant film clips to help illuminate and demystify the philosophical arguments and positions raised in the anthology′s readings.

By merging the cinematic and philosophical worlds, Introducing Philosophy Through Film provides a uniquely effective way for beginning students to engage with philosophy and gain insights into the human mind.

Preface

Source Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction: Philosophical Analysis, Argument, and the Relevance of Thought Experiments

Films: Monty Python, "The Argument Skit"; Pulp Fiction; Seinfeld episode: The Soup

Part II: The Problem of Perception

Films: Total Recall; The Matrix; Star Trek TV episode: The Menagerie

Introduction

1. First Meditation and excerpt from Sixth Meditation: René Descartes

2. Some Further Considerations Concerning Our Simple Ideas of Sensation: John Locke

3. Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous: George Berkeley

4. Of the Sceptical and Other Systems of Philosophy: David Hume

5. The Self and the Common World: A. J. Ayer

6. Brains in a Vat: Hilary Putnam

7. The Structure of Skeptical Arguments and its Metaepistemological Implications: Richard Fumerton

8. The Experience Machine: Robert Nozick

Part III: Philosophy of Mind

Films: What Dreams May Come; Bicentennial Man; Heaven Can Wait; The Sixth Day; The Prestige; Multiplicity; Star Trek TV episode: Turn About Intruder

Introduction

9. Second Meditation: René Descartes

10. Descartes Myth: Gilbert Ryle

11. Sensations and Brain Processes: J. J. C. Smart

12. What Is It Like to Be a Bat?: Thomas Nagel

13. What Mary Didn t Know: Frank Jackson

14. Minds, Brains, and Programs: John R. Searle

15. Mad Pain and Martian Pain: David Lewis

16. Eliminative Materialism: Paul Churchland

17. Of Identity and Diversity: John Locke

18. The Self and the Future: Bernard Williams

19. From Reasons and Persons: Derek Parfit

20. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality: John Perry

21. On the Immortality of the Soul: David Hume

Part IV: EthicsA. Act Consequentialism and its Critics

Films: Abandon Ship!; Fail Safe; Dirty Harry; Sophie s Choice; Saving Private Ryan; Judgment at Nuremberg; Minority Report: 24 (Season 3: 6.00 7.00 a.m.); Titanic; Vertical Limit

Introduction

22. Utilitarianism: John Stuart Mill

23. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: Immanuel Kant

24. What Makes Right Acts Right?: W. D. Ross

25. A Critique of Utilitarianism: Bernard Williams

26. An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics: J. J. C. Smart

27. Intending Harm: Shelly Kagan

28. United States v. Holmes (1842)

29. The Queen v Dudley and Stephens

30. War and Massacre: Thomas Nagel

B. Obligations to Intimates

Films: The English Patient; Casablanca; The Third Man; The Music Box; High Noon; Nick of Time; 24 (Season 1: 7.00 8.00 a.m.)

Introduction

31. From Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle

32. Self and Others: C. D. Broad

33. Filial Morality: Christina Hoff Sommers

34. Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality: Peter Railton

35. Relatives and Relativism: Diane Jeske and Richard Fumerton

36. Families, Friends, and Special Obligations: Diane Jeske

37. An Ethic of Caring: Nel Noddings

Part V: Philosophy of Time

Films: Somewhere in Time; Back to the Future; Planet of the Apes; Frequency; A Sound of Thunder

Introduction

38. Making Things to Have Happened: Roderick M. Chisholm and Richard Taylor

39. Space and Time: Richard Taylor

40. The Paradoxes of Time Travel: David Lewis

Part VI: Free Will, Foreknowledge, and Determinism

Films: Minority Report: The Boys From Brazil: A Clockwork Orange: The Omen: Compulsion: Law and Order ("black rage" defense), Season 5, Episode 69414, Rage (2/01/95)

Introduction

41. From De Interpretatione: Aristotle

42. Of Liberty and Necessity: David Hume

43. Meaning and Free Will: John Hospers

44. Determinism: J. R. Lucas

45. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person: Harry G. Frankfurt

46. The M Naghten Rules (1843): House of Lords

47. The Insanity Defense (1956): The American Law Institute

48. What Is So Special About Mental Illness?: Joel Feinberg

Part VII: Philosophy of Religion

Films: Jason and the Argonauts; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Dogma; YouTube: Mr Deity and the Evil

Introduction

49. The Wager: Blaise Pascal

50. The Ontological Argument: Anselm

51. The Cosmological and Design Arguments: William L. Rowe

52. Evil and Omnipotence: J. L. Mackie

53. Why I Am Not a Christian: Bertrand Russell

Richard Fumerton is the F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Metaphysical and Epistemological Problems of Perception (1985), Reason and Morality: A Defense of the Egocentric Perspective (1990), Metaepistemology and Skepticism (1995), Realism and the Correspondence Theory of Truth (2002), Epistemology (Blackwell, 2005), and Mill (with Wendy Donner, Wiley–Blackwell, 2009). His present teaching and research interests include epistemology, metaphysics, and value theory.

Diane Jeske is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. Her teaching and research interests include ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law. She is the author of Rationality and Moral Theory: How Intimacy Generates Reasons (2008).