Philosophy Goes to the Movies

PHILOSOPHY GOES TO THE MOVIES ‘Philosophy Goes to the Movies is very clearly and engagingly written. It has a particular claim on the attention of those preparing students for a systematic study of philosophy, one that distinguishes it from any other introductory book I know of.’ Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford ‘I think this is an excellent text. Falzon is in control of his material. He writes clearly and at a level that undergraduates can understand. He seems as comfortable describing films as he is explaining the nature of a philosophical problem. It will make an outstanding text to use in introductory philosophy classes.’ Thomas Wartenburg, Mount Holyoke College, USA Philosophy Goes to the Movies is a new kind of introduction to philosophy that makes use of film to help us understand philosophical ideas and positions. Drawing on art- house movies like Cinema Paradiso and Hollywood blockbusters such as The Matrix, Christopher Falzon introduces and discusses central areas of philosophical concern, including: • the theory of knowledge • the self and personal identity • ethics • social and political philosophy • science and technology • critical thinking. Falzon draws from the ideas of a diverse selection of thinkers, from Plato and Descartes to Marcuse and Foucault. Ideal for the beginner, this book guides the student through philosophy using lively and illuminating cinematic examples including Total Recall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Antz and Wings of Desire. It will also appeal to anyone interested in the philosophical dimensions of cinema. Christopher Falzon is Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University, Australia. He is the author of Foucault and Social Dialogue (Routledge, 1998). PHILOSOPHY GOES TO THE MOVIES An introduction to philosophy Christopher Falzon London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. © 2002 Christopher Falzon All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0–415–23740–8 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–23741–6 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-46942-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-77766-2 (Adobe eReader Format) FOR PENNY, SARAH AND JOSHUA CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Philosophy and film 3 The philosophical approach 7 Overview of the book 12 1 Plato’s picture show – the theory of knowledge 17 Plato’s cave 19 Descartes, dreams and demons 25 Rationalism and empiricism 33 Is seeing believing? 37 Kant and relativism 40 The truth and nothing but 45 2 All of Me – the self and personal identity 49 Plato and the parts of the soul 52 Descartes and dualism 60 Locke and personal identity 68 Kant, personhood and moral worth 74 3 Crimes and Misdemeanors – moral philosophy 81 The ring of Gyges 84 Plato and inner balance 88 vii CONTENTS Religion and morality 92 Kant: doing one’s duty 95 Utilitarianism 101 Existentialism: absurdity, freedom and bad faith 107 4 Antz – social and political philosophy 115 Plato’s ants 117 Liberalism: the heroic individual 121 Marxism: the social individual 128 Three faces of power 138 5 Modern Times – society, science and technology 149 Scientific utopias 152 Playing God: scientific hubris 158 Alienation in a technological society 164 Recent technology, new views 172 6 The Holy Grail – critical thinking 181 Reasoning and arguing 184 When arguments go wrong 191 Closed thinking 201 The importance of being critical 207 Glossary 212 Further reading 218 Bibliography 220 Index 225 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my editors at Routledge, Tony Bruce, Siobhan Pattinson and Sarah Howlett, for their support and patience; and to the anonymous readers to whom Routledge sent the manuscript, for their helpful editorial comments. I am also indebted to a number of people who read through all or part of the manuscript and provided invaluable comments: Sarah Bachelard, Jane Bennett, Penny Craswell, Winifred Lamb, Robert Nichols, Timothy O’Leary, John Quinn and Udo Thiel. I would also like to thank the many people who have offered advice and suggestions over the years regarding philosophical themes in movies. In particular, I am grateful to Elizabeth Coleman, William Connolly, Joanne Faulkner, Fran Gray, Kathleen Higgins, Roger Hillman, Genevieve Lloyd, Denis Loughry, Clare O’Farrell, Robert Pippin, Sarah Rice, Alison Ross, Undine Sellbach and Kimberley Tyrrell for their kind suggestions. I am also grateful to Robert Halliday and Timothy Shanahan, who generously made lists of philosophy-relevant films available on the internet, as well as to all those who contributed to those lists. ix 1 2 3 4 INTRODUCTION 511 6 7 8 9 0 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Image rights not available 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Solveig Dommartin in Wings of Desire. Credit: Road Movies/Argos Films/WDR (Courtesy Kobal) 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 1 his book is an introduction to philosophy that turns to films in order to Tillustrate and discuss philosophical ideas and themes. Its primary aim is, by spending some time at the movies, to introduce some of the ideas and arguments that have occupied philosophers over the years, to present philosophical ideas and arguments concerning knowledge, the self, morality and our social and political existence. The book is founded on the belief that films represent a kind of collective visual memory, a vast repository of images, through which many of these ideas and arguments can be illustrated and discussed. Philosophy and film At the outset it might be asked how films, which tend to make their points in the realm of ‘action and appearance’, rather than that of ‘reflection and debate’ (Perkins 1972, 69), can serve to illuminate philosophical ideas and arguments. Philosophy is often thought of as being austere and technical, concerned with abstract problems and universal principles, and far removed from anything so concrete and immediate as what is portrayed in the cinema. And philosophy itself has contributed to this perception. Within philosophy there is a degree of prejudice against the visual image. Philosophers have often portrayed the use of visual images as indicative of a more primitive or childlike form of thought, remote from the austere world of conceptual understanding, only appropriate for those who do not have access to more sophisticated means of expression. In essence, it is thought that images are concrete and particular, whereas philosophy is concerned with the abstract and the universal. This is a prejudice which arguably goes back a long way in philosophy, 3 INTRODUCTION to the Greek philosopher Plato (c.429–347 BC). In his book The Republic, Plato formulates a powerful and haunting myth, the myth of the cave. In this imaginative vision he portrays the philosophically unenlightened as captives who are bound so as to see only shadows before them on the wall of a cave, and who take these shadows for reality. Philosophical enlightenment, Plato argues, only comes when we escape from the cave and go out into the sunlight where we can see the real objects. Plato’s claim is that sense experience only gives us access to shadows. To grasp the true nature of reality, which is the proper task of philosophy, we have to break free from dependence on sense experience and use reason alone. On the face of it then, this would seem to represent a deep philosophical prejudice against the visual image as an avenue to philosophical enlightenment. And things look even less promising when we consider cinematic images, because the very structure of the modern cinema is reminiscent of Plato’s cave. In the cinema also we sit in a darkened space, transfixed by images removed from the real world. So as cinema-goers we seem to be once again like Plato’s captives, and it might seem that films would be no help whatsoever for an understanding of philosophy. Philosophy could only begin once we escape from the cinema. However, there is another way of looking at what Plato’s cave has to tell us. With this myth, Plato himself makes use of a vivid image to illuminate his own philosophical position, to convey a sense of what he wants to say. The image Plato is using is not an illusion or mere appearance that we have to tear our eyes away from in order to start to do philosophy. Rather, it is playing a positive role in his philosophical discourse, as an illustration or illumination of his position; and hence it serves as pathway to the understanding of his philosophical thinking. The use of images to illustrate philosophical positions and points in this way is not specific to Plato. Despite a lingering Platonic tendency to disparage the image in their ‘official’ pronouncements, philosophers have always resorted to a multitude of arresting and vivid visions to illustrate or clarify their position, to formulate a problem or to provide some basis for discus- sion. Philosophy is full of strange and wonderful images and inventions of this sort.

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