BASC70192 - Philosophy and Film

Course Description

We'll spend alternating weeks discussing philosophical texts and films that interact with them in some manner. We'll consider questions about each text and film in its own right, and we'll use each text and film to illuminate its companion. In relation to Dogtooth and selections from Books 2-4 of Plato's Republic we'll discuss utopianism, the ambitions and perils of closed societies, and the conceptions of human nature that animate them. In relation to The Conformist and selections from Books 7-9 of Plato's Republic we'll discuss image-making, deception and the search for truth, and the relationship between personal and political degradation. In relation to The Death of Stalin and Étienne de la Boétie’s "Discourse of Voluntary Servitude" we'll discuss the mechanisms - psychological, social and material - by which authoritarian polities are sustained, and the capabilities of political satire. And in relation to Her and John Searle's "Minds, Brains, and Programs" we'll discuss artificial intelligence, machine consciousness and love in the age of the digital revolution. Along the way we'll also consider more general questions about the relationships between philosophy and film, theory and narrative art.

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration closes June 8 at 5 pm CT.