The philosophy of film is a branch of aesthetics within the discipline of philosophy that seeks to understand the most basic questions about film. Philosophy of film has significant overlap with film theory, a branch of film studies.
Facts
Disputed
Key DebateThe transparency thesis: Kendall Walton argued that photographs, and by extension film, differ fundamentally from a painting because they let a viewer genuinely see the depicted objects themselves rather than merely a likeness of them; critics who hold that a film image is representational in the same sense a painting is, mediated by the image rather than a direct seeing of its subject, have disputed the claim ever since. 1 Key DebateWhether film can actually do philosophy or only dramatize it: Stanley Cavell and those who follow him argue that film can produce philosophical insight in its own right, while others hold that a fiction film's narrative character limits it to at most a heuristic or pedagogic role. 1 Central QuestionWhat is film capable of philosophically: is it merely a medium that illustrates arguments already made in words, or can moving images themselves produce genuine philosophical insight? 1 Key DebateThe auteur theory, which credits a film's director as its sole creative author, is contested: Francois Truffaut coined the idea polemically and Andrew Sarris popularized it for film studies, but critics reply that films are collaborative works whose actors, cinematographers, screenwriters and composers can shape a film as much as its director, so treating any film as the product of one controlling individual is a mistake even where the theory remains a useful focus for studying a single director's body of work. 1 Connections
Associated With
Philosophy of film is standardly treated as an applied branch of aesthetics directed at the moving image, matching the same associated-with shape already live between Aesthetics and Philosophy of Sport.
Deleuze's two-volume Cinema (The Movement-Image, 1983; The Time-Image, 1985) is the field's most influential single-author work, proposing that film itself does philosophical work rather than merely illustrating it.
Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informationentry: Philosophy of Film, Introduction
The philosophy of film is now a firmly established subfield of contemporary philosophy of art.
entry: Philosophy of Film, section 7 Film as Philosophy
Now, however, there is an ongoing debate about the philosophical capacity of film. In opposition to views like that of Cavell, a number of philosophers have argued that films can have at most a heuristic or pedagogic function in relation to philosophy.
entry: Philosophy of Film, section 3 Film and Authorship
It is a mistake to treat all films as if they were simply the product of one crucial individual, the director.
entry: Philosophy of Film, section 2 The Nature of Film
Kendall Walton, in an extremely influential paper (1984), argued that film, because of its basis in photography, was a realistic medium that allowed viewers to actually see the objects that appear on screen.
View the Source Philosophy of Film (Wikipedia)
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The philosophy of film is a branch of aesthetics within the discipline of philosophy that seeks to understand the most basic questions about film. Philosophy of film has significant overlap with film theory, a branch of film studies.
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