Over at the Garden of Forking Paths, there's a post about movies that touch on themes in action theory.
I thought about the possibility of teaching a philosophy 101 class using just movies. Let's say you were planning the curriculum for such a class. Which movies do you think would best illustrate basic themes and subthemes in ethics, metaphysics and epistemology?
You don't have to provide a complete list. Any suggestion to get the ball rolling will be fine.
posted by Philo @ 12:41 PM
6 Comments:
At Ithaca College, Michael McKenna taught a course (200-level) that was basically an intro to philosophy using film and text. There was one film a week to be viewed out of class and discussed in class, with the readings intended to motivate the discussion philosophically. I don't know what precisely he used but I think at least the following: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" "The Matrix" "Sophie's Choice" "Minority Report" "A Clockwork Orange" and "Bladerunner." I personally love the idea since it really gives the students something to be interested in and excellent discussion topics.
How do you think he used those movies? Better yet, how would you use those movies? What concepts would be illustrated by those films?
Adaptation, Momento.
Memento is surely a good choice...I'm not sure why Adaptation is.
Here's some more (look 'em up):
Persona
Gattaca
2001: A Space Odyssey
Logan's Run
Videodrome
I would use Gattaca for a fun ethics discussion. I disagree with the moral message of Gattaca, but if gives an amusing slippery slope argument. There are interesting questions about what sorts of designer baby procedures are moral, and how the society ought to respond when these procedures become common.
Is the problem with the Gattaca world that they design their babies, or that they have a stupid policy of discrimination? I'll suggest that the policy of discrimination is separable from the technology, and thus tells us nothing of the morality of baby design, but you could probably get considerable interesting discussion about it.
Twelve Monkeys is a philosophically sound treatment of time travel.
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