Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman On Film as Philosophy

by Livingston, Paisley

• ISBN13: 9780199655144
• ISBN10: 0199655146
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The increasingly popular idea that cinematic fictions can 'do' philosophy raises some difficult questions. Who is actually doing the philosophizing? Is it the philosophical commentator who reads general arguments or theories into the stories conveyed by a film? Could it be the film-maker, or a group of collaborating film-makers, who raise and try to answer philosophical questions with a film? Is there something about the experience of films that is especiallysuited to the stimulation of worthwhile philosophical reflections? Paisley Livingston surveys positions and arguments surrounding the cinema's philosophical value, and defends an intentionalist approach that focuses on the film-makers' philosophical background assumptions, sources, and aims.He exemplifies this intentionalist approach by exploring the connection between Ingmar Bergman's work and the Swedish director's primary philosophical source--a treatise in philosophical psychology authoredby theFinnish philosopher, Eino Kaila. Livingston shows how Bergman took up Kaila's topics in his cinematic explorations of motivated irrationality, inauthenticity, and the problem of self-knowledge.

Author Biography

Paisley Livingston is Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
List of Illustrations	p. viii
Image Permissions	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Surveying Cinema as Philosophy
Theses on Cinema as Philosophy	p. 11
Arguing over Cinema as Philosophy	p. 39
An Intentionalist Approach to Film as Philosophy
Types of Authorship in the Cinema	p. 63
Partial Intentionalism	p. 84
On Ingmar bergman and Philosophy
Bergman, Kaila, and the Faces of Irrationality	p. 125
Value, Authenticity, and Fantasy in Bergman	p. 161
Conclusion	p. 194
Bibliography	p. 201
Index	p. 213
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.