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Thinking Through Film: Doing Philosophy, Watching Movies

ISBN: 978-1-405-19343-6

August 2011

Wiley-Blackwell

288 pages

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Description

THINKING THROUGH FILM

Thinking Through Film provides the best introduction available to the diverse relationships between film and philosophy. Clearly written and persuasively argued, it will benefit students of both film and philosophy.
Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke College, author of Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy

Cox and Levine’s admirable Thinking Through Film picks up where Philosophy Goes to the Movies left off, arguing that films not only do philosophy but, in some cases, do it better than philosophers! The result is a rich and rewarding examination of films – from metaphysical thought experiments, personal identity puzzles, to reflections on the meaning of life – that shows, in bracing, no-nonsense fashion, how popular cinema can do serious philosophy. —Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University

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 in an engaging way, and 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.

About the Author

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.

Features
  • An in-depth yet accessible introduction to the philosophical issues 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