Philosophy Through Film

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Philosophy Through Film

• Morality, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life

Kelly Inglis Office Philosophy Department
MB306 Office hours by appointment Email
kellyinglis_at_yahoo.com
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About the course

• Wednesdays 200-500
• Classroom Meng Wah Complex T1
• For schedule, readings, announcements, etc., see
  course blog
• kellyinglis.wordpress.com

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Course content

• Philosophy through movies
• Exploration of philosophical ideas, puzzles,
  problems and dilemmas as introduced through 10
  thought-provoking movies
• Every week
• Lecture on philosophical topic
• Movie
• Short post-movie discussion

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Tutorials

• Tutorials to discuss how the movies handle the
  philosophical issues
• 15 students per tutorial
• Discussion is extremely important
• You must attend 5 tutorials

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Tutorial arrangements

• There are 10 tutorials for 10 movies
• But you only attend 5
• Two categories of tutorials
• Category one The Matrix, Thank you for Smoking,
  Bicentennial Man, Memento, Groundhog Day
• Category two Quiz Show, Minority Report, the
  Prestige, Kate and Leopold, Life is Beautiful
• Tutorial schedule will be posted next week.
• Tutorials start on Sept. 15th

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Tutorial participation

• Tutorial presentations
• Every week you will be given a list of questions
  about the movie.
• For one tutorial, you must prepare a short
  presentation (2-3 minutes) on your answer to one
  question and lead a discussion on this question
  in the tutorial
• This counts for 20 of your grade.
• For every tutorial, you must participate in the
  discussion.
• This counts for 30 of your grade.

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Portfolio

• You must write a short answer (2 pages) to one
  question on each of 8 movies (out of 10).
• Due at the end of the course.
• 50 of your grade
• Assessment summary
• Class presentation in tutorial 20
• Tutorial participation 30
• Portfolio 50

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Suggested readings

• No required reading
• Suggested readings every week
• Copies of readings available in the Philosophy
  Department office
• Ask Loletta

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What is philosophy?

• Tackling the big questions
• Morality
• What is moral? Where does morality come from?
  How do we decide what is moral?
• Metaphysics
• What is real? What can we know? What is a
  person? Do we have free will? What is logically
  possible?
• The Meaning of Life
• Does life have meaning? What makes a good life?

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Philosophical topics in this course

• Skepticism
• Morality
• Paternalism vs. Individual Rights
• Free Will
• Personhood
• Personal Identity
• The Extended Mind
• Problems and Paradoxes of Time Travel
• The Meaning of Life
• Interpreting Reality

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Skepticism

• Is the world real?
• What can we know?
• Are we dreaming?
• Are we brains in a vat?
• Are we part of a computer program?

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Platos cave

• Plato
• Ancient Greek philosopher
• Approx. 427 BC 348 BC
• The Republic

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The cave
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Reality vs. illusion

• The cave is an illusion
• Outside the cave is reality
• The prisoners know only the illusion
• Are we like the prisoners?
• Is there another world that is more real than
  this world?
• Spectrum of reality
• Illusion
  
  Reality
• shadows ordinary objects
  the Forms
• reflections the apparent world
  the real world

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Descartes

• French philosopher and mathematician
• (1596-1650)
• Radical skepticism
• Doubt everything
• I am dreaming.
• A demon is deceiving me.

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• What cannot be doubted?
• I think therefore I am.
• Thoughts, ideas, perceptions are real.
• Everything else is in doubt.
• Maybe the world is not real.

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Zhuangzi

• Ancient Chinese philosopher
• (4th century B.C.)
• Dreamt he was a butterfly
• Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a
  butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy
  with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't
  know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and
  there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi.
  But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had
  dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly
  dreaming he was Zhuangzi. (2, tr. Burton Watson
  196849)

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• Could you be dreaming right now?
• Could your whole life be a dream?
• How could you know?
• Plato vs. Descartes
• Descartes I am real, you are not
• Plato were in the same dream
• Note Plato taught that this world is not real
  but there is a higher reality. Descartes
  ultimately decided that the world we see and
  experience is real.
• Zhuangzi??

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Suggested readings on Skepticism

•  Internet Sources
• Plato, Allegory of the Cave, at
  http//webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
• Descartes, First Meditation, Second Meditation
  (up to section 3), at http//www.wright.edu/cola/
  descartes/mede.html
• Daniel Dennett, Where am I?, at
  http//www.cs.umu.se/kurser/TDBC12/HT99/Dennett.ht
  ml
• On reserve in Philosophy Dept. Office 
• Stephen Law, The Philosophy Gym, Chapter 3,
  Brain-Snatched