UOW Philosophy is pleased to have Dr. Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie) speaking at its Philosophy Research Seminar series. All are welcome.
Title: Scenes from a Marriage: On the Idea of Film as Philosophy Date: Thursday 10 May Time: 4.30-6.30 Venue: 19.1003 Abstract: One of the more original contributions to contemporary aesthetics is the idea that film can engage in its own distinctive kind of thinking: the idea of film as philosophy. Defenders of the ‘film as philosophy’ idea have argued that certain kinds of film are capable of screening philosophical thought-experiments (Thomas Wartenberg), that film can philosophise on a variety of topics, including reflection on its own status, in ways comparable to philosophy (Stephen Mulhall), or that film has its own affective ways of thinking that alter the manner in which film and philosophy can be experienced (Daniel Frampton). Critics of the ‘film as philosophy’ idea, by contrast, have argued that such claims are merely metaphorical: that film, as a visual narrative art, does not give reasons, make arguments, or draw conclusions, hence it cannot be understood as ‘philosophical’ in the proper sense (Julian Baggini, Bruce Russell, Murray Smith). Alternatively, some critics argue that any philosophy to be gleaned from a film is either due to the philosophical acumen of the interpreter, or else is confined to the expression of an explicit aesthetic intention on the part of its maker(s) (Paisley Livingston). The difficulty with such debates, I shall argue, is that they presuppose a reductive conception of what counts as philosophy, or fail to reflect on the variety of ways in which philosophy and film—or indeed philosophy and art—can be related. Moreover, critics of the film as philosophy idea neglect the ways in which their own critique relies on interpretative claims about the philosophical import--or otherwise--of films, which suggests that film interpretation remains an unavoidable and important part of any debate over whether films can be philosophical. My suggestion is that the most productive way of exploring the idea of film as philosophy is as an invitation to rethink the hierarchical relationship between philosophy and art, and to explore novel ways in which our conventional understanding of philosophy—and aesthetic receptivity to new philosophical experience—might be transformed through the encounter between film and philosophy. _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list: http://bit.ly/sydphil 1000+ subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://bit.ly/sydphil
