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Political Philosophy in Motion *.mkv Political Philosophy in Motion *.mkv By Viorella Manolache Political Philosophy in Motion *.mkv By Viorella Manolache This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Viorella Manolache All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0392-5 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0392-2 Translation: Ian Browne; Ann Marie Browne Romanian Revision of the Text: Doina Manolache The present volume is part of the research project no. 12, “Filosofia științei, a mentalului și a comunicării: cunoaștere, cunoștință, conștiență, mental, ființă dialogică, polifonie, libertate de expresie, semnificație, interpretare” [Philosophy of Science, Mind and Communication: Knowledge, Awareness, Mental, Dialogical Being, Polyphony, Freedom of Expression, Meaning, Interpretation], of The Academy of Romanian Scientists (AOŞR), Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei no. 54, Bucharest, Romania, postal code 050085. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................... vii Developing Ideas in the Dark Rooms of Our Self: The Concepts and the Communication of Human Conscience in Film Angela Botez and Henrieta Şerban Philosophy/Cinema: "Beyond any Discipline" ........................................ xxv Marina Roman Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Starting Frames: Sense-Conducing Prefixes 1.1 Ideology as Lens .............................................................................. 6 1.2 Old Ideological News .................................................................... 13 1.2.1 Political Philosophy: The Essential Relationship between Philosophy and Film ................................................... 21 1.2.2 Upgrading to the Third Power: 3D Ideology ......................... 45 Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 51 The Third Pill 2.1. Hutcheon & Žižek & Eco .............................................................. 51 2.2. Axel Honneth: Film as Indicator of Social Interaction ................. 77 Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 97 Alternative Visual Clues for Political Philosophy 3.1 The Philosophers (2013). The alternative of repeated decomposition and single rebuild ................................................... 99 3.2 Irrational Man (2015). Moral choices. Philosophy and the “Judge Thomas Spangler” syndrome ............................... 107 3.3 God is Not Dead (2014). The Process of salvation by interpretation: weak ontology and the hermeneutics of the death of God ....................................................................... 109 3.4 Lions for Lambs (2007). Stephen Malley – when he cannot act, the rapporteur may teach .............................................................. 112 3.5 The Emperor's Club (2002). William Hundert – the rapporteur is a moderator ............................................................................... 115 vi Table of Contents 3.6 Mr. Morgan's Last Love (2013). The compensatory meeting: the rapporteur face to face with the fissure, with fixing and with floating .......................................................................... 117 3.7 Road House (1989). Visual clues of legitimate domination ........ 118 3.8 The Life of David Gale (2003). The rapporteur confronted by life and death ........................................................................... 120 3.9 The Sunset Limited (2011). The rapporteur and the primacy of “Cecil” ..................................................................................... 122 3.10 Waking Life (2001). Clues in motion ......................................... 124 3.11 The Girl with All the Gifts (2016). Pandora and moral pairings in twos .......................................................................................... 126 3.12 L`Avenir (2016). Minima Moralia as understood by Pandora .... 128 Chapter Four ............................................................................................ 133 Biographical Sequences/Clues: From the Serious Themes of Political Philosophy to Bio-Tabloidization 4.1 Examined Life .............................................................................. 133 4.2 Arendt. Stein. Weil. The “banality” of a serious discussion ........ 137 4.3 Michel Foucault: Beyond Good and Evil. The effects of bio-tabloidization ..................................................................... 148 4.4 Jacques Derrida: Visual Clues as Implications and Poses ........... 172 Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 187 Conclusions: Specific Visual Clues and Appropriate Vocabularies 5.1 Conclusive Notes: Politics and Forward Philosophy................... 196 5.2 Concluding Notes: Politics and Philosophy Rewind .................... 200 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 211 About the Author ..................................................................................... 231 INTRODUCTION1 DEVELOPING IDEAS IN THE DARK ROOMS OF OUR SELF: THE CONCEPTS AND THE COMMUNICATION OF HUMAN CONSCIENCE IN FILM ANGELA BOTEZ AND HENRIETA ŞERBAN Motto: “Film as dream, film as music. No art passes into our consciousness in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” —Ingmar Bergman Viorella Manolache´s Political Philosophy in Motion *.mkv is an examination of the linked triad of ideas, consciousness-communication- film, a topic worthy of the careful philosophical examination it receives in this book. 1 The Introduction is based on the project Philosophy of science, mind and communication: knowledge, awareness, consciousness, mind, dialogical being, polyphony, freedom of expression, meaning, interpretation [in Romanian, Filosofia științei, a mentalului și a comunicării: cunoaștere, cunoștință, conștiență, mental, ființă dialogică, polifonie, libertate de expresie, semnificație, interpretare] and it examines the concepts of consciousness, communication and film offering new insights and building on previous studies by the coordinators of the project Professor Angela Botez, President of the Philosophy, Psychology and Theology Section of the Academy of Romanian Scientists and Senior Researcher Henrieta Șerban, Scientific Secretary of the Philosophy, Psychology and Theology Section of the Academy of Romanian Scientists. The part on consciousness is written by Angela Botez and the following ones, by Henrieta Șerban. * The author (V. M.) points out the effective support in the pre-publishing aspects of the present book of Elena Lazăr, Researcher, Project no. 13 – Philosophy of Law (Academy of Romanian Scientists). viii Introduction Consciousness If we examine the concept of “consciousness”, we can see that it derives from the Latin term conscientia, meaning “with science” or “knowledge together [with others]”. The related Greek term, syneidenai, includes the meaning of knowledge combined with self-analysis (introspection). Consciousness has been considered to be the basis of knowledge (Hamilton) or the basis of self-knowledge, linked to the idea of “spontaneous consciousness”, or directed towards an object of knowledge (“reflected consciousness”); given and construed consciousness; subjective and objective consciousness; being conscious of a stage of human development or of a social class; a conscious form of existence, perceptual consciousness; psychological consciousness; moral consciousness and so on, examined in the philosophical works of Descartes, Kant, Hamilton, Schopenhauer, Hegel; in the works of philosopher neurologists such as M. Daude, J. Lachelier, M. Blondel, M. Bernes, E. Claparéde; and in the works of cognitivists such as Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Bergson, Bachelard, Canguilhelm, Foucault, Desanti, Mouloud, Gusdorf, Ricoeur etc. It is impossible in an introduction to offer an exhaustive characterisation, but we propose instead to give some indication of the complexity of the subject and a few theoretical signposts. Moore and Russell analysed (in constitutive and relational terms) the difference between the mental states and their objects. Ordinary consciousness is always consciousness of something, the object of a mental state, which is linked to the idea of intentionality. James disagrees with Moore, considering consciousness to be not an aspect of identity, but an extra element, detached from the essential characteristics of identity (in “Does Consciousness Exist?” Essays in Radical Empiricism, London, 1912). Consciousness appears in the context of a specific relationship between two terms, in which one knows the other. James offered a relational analysis of consciousness, which culminated in the neutral monism of pure experience. Relational analysis emphasizes that no relational term ever stands alone, either as the object or as the subject of consciousness, since it must