Macquarie University

Film and Philosophy - PHL365

What can philosophy teach us about cinema? What can cinema show us about philosophy? This unit explores these questions by investigating philosophical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of our engagement with cinema. Rather than treating film as an illustration of theories or ideas, we examine how film itself can explore philosophical problems in visual and narrative terms. We begin with the problems of cinematic representation, visual perception, and the ontology of the moving image. We analyse how film represents our subjective experience by exploring the phenomenology of perception and movement, emotional engagement and time-consciousness, moral psychology and ethical transformation. We study how films can express moral ideas, stage philosophical ‘thought experiments’, focusing on the provocative claim that films can 'do philosophy' by cinematic means. We consider how narrative and documentary film can contribute to our understanding of love and happiness, personal and cultural identity, environmental challenges and globalisation. Finally, we examine recent developments in film-philosophy—spanning phenomenological and cognitivist approaches—responding to digital media and the aesthetics of long-form television series. Overall, the unit aims to show not only how philosophy can help us understand film but how cinema can help us become more imaginative and ethical thinkers.