Philosophical Films
Reviews of films with philosophical content. Worth a look.
Posted by William F. Vallicella on
Wednesday December 27, 2006 at 10:58am
Civil e-mail containing comments, constructive criticisms, and the like is gladly received, although I cannot promise to answer everything. I will, however, make an honest attempt. Offensive e-mail is deleted unread. Choose your subject headings carefully as I sometimes decide to delete from them. I do not open attached files from unknown parties. If you send a message not addressed to me in particular, I will be tempted to let someone in general answer it. Pith is king and neatness counts. E-mail is subject to posting in whole or in part at my discretion unless the sender requests otherwise.
Comments Policy
You must be pre-approved to leave comments on this site. If I know you and you have already established your bona fides, then you are in like Flynn, whether or not you hide behind a pseudonym. But if I don't know you, or you have proven yourself to be offensive in the past, then you are out like Stout — unless you reveal your real identity and provide me with some way of verifying it. In other words, no one I don't know will be approved who comments anonymously or pseudonymously. Full statement here.
Any other topics that films haven't dealt with? Presentism vs eternalism? Whether the universe had a beginning in time? The problem of logical determinism. The inverted spectrum problem, the private language argument.
Does film even deal with the obvious problem in a satisfactory way? The Matrix had some very clumsy philosophical flaws. Films about the afterlife (Ghost, Flatliners, many others) do not deal with the real problem in any way (I mean the problem that Wittgenstein alludes to when he says "is not this eternal life itself as much of a riddle as our present life?"). For example, any attempt to deal with the private language argument would have to involve showing how things looked to us from the other person's point of view, as it were. But Wittgenstein would argue that any attempt to do that would fall into the very trap he constantly warns us against.
2. Disallowing comments from a particular person, or deleting an offensive, off-topic, or otherwise substandard comment, has nothing to do with censorship. People who think otherwise confuse censorship with lack of sponsorship. I am under an obligation not to interfere with anyone's exercise of legitimate free speech rights. But I am not under any obligation to aid and abet anyone's exercise of free speech rights, legitimate or illegitimate.
3. The Comments area is not an open forum for anyone to say anything about any topic. As the name implies, it is primarily for commenting on the author(s)' posts. But to comment on them, one must have read them. And if I have spent three hours on a post, a reader will not understand it in thirty seconds. Secondarily, the Comments area is to facilitate civil discussion between and among commenters as long as the discussion remains on-topic.
4. Some undesirables: The skimmers, those who cannot read but only read-in. The sophists who, abusing argument, argue for the sake of argument. The ideologues, those who are out for power, not truth. The uncivil. The illogical. The politically correct. Worst of all, perhaps, are those who exemplify the anti-Socratic property: those who think they know what they don't know. If Socrates was famous for his learned ignorance, these types are marked by their ignorant unlearnededness.