Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures

Noël Carroll is the Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Temple University and the author of Beyond Aesthetics (2001), A Philosophy of Mass Art (1999), and Interpreting the Moving Image (1998). Jinhee Choi is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and The British Journal of Aesthetics.

“While theoretically inclined film scholars continue to recycle the theories of Lacan and Deleuze, analytical philosophers have quietly assumed the leading edge of film theory. This judicious collection of essays, framed by thoughtful commentaries, provides an ideal introduction to the field of analytic film theory for students of philosophy and film alike.” Richard Allen, New York University “The philosophy of film and motion pictures has flourished in the last forty years or so, and Carroll and Choi’s anthology offers a marvelous overview of the chief issues. This volume assembles many of the best contributions by contemporary philosophers, and will serve as an excellent textbook in relevant courses. I expect it will also be an important stimulus to further research.” George Wilson, University of Southern California

• Acknowledgments viiiGeneral Introduction 1Part I Film as Art 5Introduction 71 Photography and Representation 19roger scruton2 The Aesthetics of Photographic Transparency 35dominic mciver lopes3 Everybody Gets a Cut: DVDs Give Viewers Dozens of Choices – and that’s the Problem 44terrence raffertyPart II What Is Film? 49Introduction 514 The World Viewed 67stanley cavell5 A Note on the Film 79susanne k. langer6 Vision and Dream in the Cinema 82f. e. sparshott7 The Long Goodbye: The Imaginary Language of Film 91gregory currie8 Moving Pictures 100arthur c. danto9 Defining the Moving Image 113noËl carrollPart III Documentary 135Introduction 13710 Visible Traces: Documentary and the Contents of Photographs 141gregory currie11 Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the Film of Presumptive Assertion: A Conceptual Analysis 154noËl carrollPart IV Film Narrative/Narration 173Introduction 17512 Le Grand Imagier Steps Out: The Primitive Basis of Film Narration 185george m. wilson13 Unreliability Refigured: Narrative in Literature and Film 200gregory curriePart V Film and Emotion 211Introduction 21314 Film, Emotion, and Genre 217noËl carroll15 Fearing Fictions 234kendall walton16 Empathy and (Film) Fiction 247alex neill17 Identification and Emotion in Narrative Film 260berys gaut18 In Fictional Shoes: Mental Simulation and Fiction 271deborah knightPart VI Topics in Film Criticism 281Introduction 28319 Morals for Method 287george m. wilson20 Cinematic Authorship 299paisley livingston21 National Cinema, the Very Idea 310jinhee choiPart VII Film and Ethics 321Introduction 32322 Film Criticism and Virtue Theory 335joseph h. kupfer23 Beauty and Evil: The Case of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will 347mary devereaux24 A First Look at the Pornography/Civil Rights Ordinance: Could Pornography Be the Subordination of Women? 362melinda vadasPart VIII Film and Knowledge 379Introduction 38125 The Philosophical Limits of Film 387bruce russell26 Minerva in the Movies: Relations Between Philosophy and Film 391karen hanson27 Motion Pictures as a Philosophical Resource 397lester h. huntSelect Bibliography by Jinhee Choi 407Index 415