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Cowboys, Murder and the Matrix
PHIL 2010: Introduction to Philosophy Through Film

Topics and Calendar:

  1. What is philosophy?
    • Different Conceptions of Philosophy
    • The Nature of Argument
    • The Value of Philosophy

    Reading: "Apology: Defense of Socrates" Plato, pp. 27-42
    "The Value of Philosophy" Bertrand Russell pp. 9-12

    Outside Movie Viewing: Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) (PG-13) Woody Allen


  2. Why be moral?
    • Why do we, and why should we behave morally?

    Reading: Plato, from The Republic, pp. 679-694
    Plato, from The Republic, pp. 695-698

    Outside Movie Viewing: The Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman


  3. Does God Exist?
    • What is God?
    • How could we know whether God exists?
    • Should we act as if we believe?

    Reading: Saint Anselm, from Proslogion, pp. 45-47
    Saint Thomas Aquinas, from Summa Theologica, pp. 47-49
    Pascal, "The Wager" 49-52

    Outside Movie Viewing: The Matrix (1999) (R) the Wachowski Brothers
    Alternative movie:The Truman Show (1998) (PG) Peter Weir


  4. What Do We Know?
    • What is knowledge?
    • What can we be certain of?
    • Could everything we think is true be an illusion?

    Reading: Rene Descartes, Meditations, pp. 116-138
    Thomas Nagel, "War and Massacre" pp. 552-563

    Outside Movie Viewing: Abra Los Ojos/Open Your Eyes (R) (1997) Alejandro Amenabar


  5. Should We Care about the Real?
    • What's so great about reality?
    • What gives our lives value?
    • Is happiness our aim in life?
    • What is the nature of the absured?
    • Are our lives absurd?

    Reading: Thomas Nagel, "The Absurd" pp. 20-26
    Colin McGinn, "The Matrix of Dreams"
    Robert Nozick, "The Experience Machine" Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 42-45
    James Pryor, "What's So Bad About Living in the Matrix?"

    Outside Movie Viewing: Blade Runner(R) Ridley Scott


  6. Mind, Brain and Machine
    • Could Machines Have Minds?
    • Do Humans Have Minds?
    • What is the relationship between mind and matter?

    Reading: A.M. Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" 355-368
    David Lewis, "Mad Pain and Martian Pain" 331-336

    Outside Movie Viewing: After Life (1998) Kore-eda Hirokazu


  7. Personal Identity
    • What, exactly, is me?
    • Is the idea of survival after death coherent?

    Reading: John Perry, "A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality" pp.396-416

    Outside Movie Viewing: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance(1962) John Ford


  8. Cowboy Philosophy
    • What is a film genre?
    • What are the characteristics of the western?
    • What moral outlooks clash in the Western?

    Reading:Peter French, "The Death of Death" on electronic reserve
    Bernard Williams, "Moral Luck" on library reserve (paper and electronic)

    Outside Movie Viewing: Unforgiven (1992) (R) Clint Eastwood


  9. Forgiveness and Punishment
    • What value does punishment have? Is there moral importance to retribution?

    Reading:Russ Shafer-Landau, "The Failure of Retributivism"

    Outside Movie Viewing: Alien (1979) (R) Ridley Scott


  10. Thinking about film genre
    • What are the characteristics of the art horror genre?
    • Why would we enjoy being scared?
    • How can we distinguish between folk and scientific ontology?
    • How do horror categories relate to our fundamental ontological categories?

    Reading:Noel Carroll, Chapter 1 from The Philosophy of Horror On Reserve

    Outside Movie Viewing: Them (1954)

  11. Film genre and feminism
    • What is feminism?
    • What would a feminist reading of horror be like?

    Reading:Cynthia Freeland, "Women and Bugs" from The Naked and the Undead On Reserve


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