Damian Cox is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bond University. He is co-author, with Michael Levine and Marguerite La Caze, of Integrity and the Fragile Self (2003). He has written widely on philosophical topics, including ethics, value theory, metaphysics, and epistemology.Michael P. Levine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, and has co-authored, with Damian Cox and Saul Newman, Politics Most Unusual: Violence, Sovereignty and Democracy in the ‘War on Terror’ (2009). He is currently working on the topic of the role of regret and self-assessment in our moral lives.

Thinking Through Film provides the best introduction available to the diverse relationships between film and philosophy. Clearly written and persuasively argued, it will benefit students of both film and philosophy. —Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke CollegeCox and Levine's admirable Thinking Through Film picks up where Philosophy Goes to the Movies left off, arguing that films not only do philosophy but, in some cases, do it better than philosophers! The result is a rich and rewarding examination of films-from metaphysical thought experiments, personal identity puzzles, to reflections on the meaning of life-that shows, in bracing, no-nonsense fashion, how popular cinema can do serious philosophy. —Roger Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University

• Preface vii Acknowledgments xPart I Philosophy and Film 11 Why Film and Philosophy? 32 Philosophy and Film Spectatorship 23Part II Epistemology and Metaphysics 473 Knowing What's What in Total Recall 494 Ontology and The Matrix 655 It's All in the Mind: AI Artifi cial Intelligence and Robot Love 796 La Jetée and the Promise of Time Travel 98Part III The Human Condition 1137 Fate and Choice: The Philosophy of Minority Report 1158 Personal Identity: The Case of Memento 1329 The Spectacle of Horror: Funny Games 14710 Looking for Meaning in All the Wrong Places: Ikiru ("To Live") 170Part IV Ethics and Values 18911 Crimes and Misdemeanors and the Fragility of Moral Motivation 19112 The Lives of Others: Moral Luck and Regret 20913 The Dark Knight: Batman on Deontology and Consequentialism 22814 Dangerous Childhood: La Promesse and the Possibility of Virtue 245Index 265

Damian Cox is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bond University. He is co-author, with Michael Levine and Marguerite La Caze, of Integrity and the Fragile Self (2003). He has written widely on philosophical topics, including ethics, value theory, metaphysics, and epistemology.Michael P. Levine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, and has co-authored, with Damian Cox and Saul Newman, Politics Most Unusual: Violence, Sovereignty and Democracy in the ‘War on Terror’ (2009). He is currently working on the topic of the role of regret and self-assessment in our moral lives.

Thinking Through Film provides the best introduction available to the diverse relationships between film and philosophy. Clearly written and persuasively argued, it will benefit students of both film and philosophy. —Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke CollegeCox and Levine's admirable Thinking Through Film picks up where Philosophy Goes to the Movies left off, arguing that films not only do philosophy but, in some cases, do it better than philosophers! The result is a rich and rewarding examination of films-from metaphysical thought experiments, personal identity puzzles, to reflections on the meaning of life-that shows, in bracing, no-nonsense fashion, how popular cinema can do serious philosophy. —Roger Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University

• Preface vii Acknowledgments xPart I Philosophy and Film 11 Why Film and Philosophy? 32 Philosophy and Film Spectatorship 23Part II Epistemology and Metaphysics 473 Knowing What's What in Total Recall 494 Ontology and The Matrix 655 It's All in the Mind: AI Artifi cial Intelligence and Robot Love 796 La Jetée and the Promise of Time Travel 98Part III The Human Condition 1137 Fate and Choice: The Philosophy of Minority Report 1158 Personal Identity: The Case of Memento 1329 The Spectacle of Horror: Funny Games 14710 Looking for Meaning in All the Wrong Places: Ikiru ("To Live") 170Part IV Ethics and Values 18911 Crimes and Misdemeanors and the Fragility of Moral Motivation 19112 The Lives of Others: Moral Luck and Regret 20913 The Dark Knight: Batman on Deontology and Consequentialism 22814 Dangerous Childhood: La Promesse and the Possibility of Virtue 245Index 265

Damian Cox is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bond University. He is co-author, with Michael Levine and Marguerite La Caze, of Integrity and the Fragile Self (2003). He has written widely on philosophical topics, including ethics, value theory, metaphysics, and epistemology.Michael P. Levine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, and has co-authored, with Damian Cox and Saul Newman, Politics Most Unusual: Violence, Sovereignty and Democracy in the ‘War on Terror’ (2009). He is currently working on the topic of the role of regret and self-assessment in our moral lives.

Thinking Through Film provides the best introduction available to the diverse relationships between film and philosophy. Clearly written and persuasively argued, it will benefit students of both film and philosophy. —Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke CollegeCox and Levine's admirable Thinking Through Film picks up where Philosophy Goes to the Movies left off, arguing that films not only do philosophy but, in some cases, do it better than philosophers! The result is a rich and rewarding examination of films-from metaphysical thought experiments, personal identity puzzles, to reflections on the meaning of life-that shows, in bracing, no-nonsense fashion, how popular cinema can do serious philosophy. —Roger Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University

• Preface vii Acknowledgments xPart I Philosophy and Film 11 Why Film and Philosophy? 32 Philosophy and Film Spectatorship 23Part II Epistemology and Metaphysics 473 Knowing What's What in Total Recall 494 Ontology and The Matrix 655 It's All in the Mind: AI Artifi cial Intelligence and Robot Love 796 La Jetée and the Promise of Time Travel 98Part III The Human Condition 1137 Fate and Choice: The Philosophy of Minority Report 1158 Personal Identity: The Case of Memento 1329 The Spectacle of Horror: Funny Games 14710 Looking for Meaning in All the Wrong Places: Ikiru ("To Live") 170Part IV Ethics and Values 18911 Crimes and Misdemeanors and the Fragility of Moral Motivation 19112 The Lives of Others: Moral Luck and Regret 20913 The Dark Knight: Batman on Deontology and Consequentialism 22814 Dangerous Childhood: La Promesse and the Possibility of Virtue 245Index 265