Shadow philosophy : Plato's cave and cinema

173 Pages·2014·1.12 MB·English

by  Andersen

’
Shadow Philosophy: Plato s Cave
and Cinema
ShadowPhilosophy:Plato’s Caveand Cinemaisan accessibleand excitingnewcontribu-
tion to film-philosophy, which shows that to take filmseriouslyisalsotoengagewiththe
fundamental questions of philosophy. Nathan Andersen brings Stanley Kubrick’s film A
ClockworkOrangeintophilosophicalconversationwithPlato’sRepublic,comparingtheir
contributions to themes such as the nature of experience and meaning, the character of
justice,thecontrastbetweenappearanceandreality,theimportanceofart,andtheimpact
ofimages.AttheheartofthebookisanovelaccountoftheanalogybetweenPlato’salle-
goryofthecaveandcinema,developedinconjunctionwithaprovocativeinterpretationof
themostpowerfulimagefromAClockworkOrange,inwhichtheleadcharacterisstrapped
toachairandforcedtowatchviolentfilms.
WhereasPlatocomparesthewholerangeofordinaryexperiencetoshadowsonthewall
of a darkened cave, the author suggests that, in relation to cinema, audiences have the
advantagethattheyknowtheseshadowsarenotreal.Theresultisthatcinemamoreeasily
provokes the kinds of philosophical concerns it takes a special discipline to consider in
relationtoeverydaylife.ThisaccountofPlato’scavecontrastswiththemoreusualreading,
according to which images and art, and by implication cinema, only serve to bind their
spectators more deeply to the shadows. FilmslikeAClockworkOrangedemonstratethat
whileimagescanhaveapowerfulimpactontheattitudesofaudiences,theyalsohavethe
powertoprovokethemtocriticallyexaminetheirmostbasicassumptions.
Keyfeaturesofthebookinclude:
(cid:2) AcomprehensivebibliographyofsuggestedreadingsonPlato,onfilm,onphilosophy,
andonthephilosophyoffilm,aimedatreaderswhowishtopursuethesethemesfurther.
(cid:2) A list of suggested films that can be explored following the approach in this book,
including brief descriptions of each film, and suggestions regarding its philosophical
implications.
(cid:2) Aglossarydefiningkeytermsfrombothphilosophyandfilmstudiesthatarementioned
oremployedwithinthetext.
(cid:2) AsummaryofPlato’sRepublic,bookbybook,highlightingbothdramaticcontextand
subjectmatter,andfunctioningasasupplementtothebookforreaderswhohavenotread
thisclassicalphilosophicaltextinitsentiretyorwhoneedareminderofitsscope.
Offering a close reading of the controversial classic film A Clockwork Orange, and an
introductoryaccountof thecentralthemesofthe philosophicalclassic TheRepublic, this
bookwillbeofinteresttobothscholarsandstudentsofphilosophyandfilm,aswellasto
readersofPlatoandfansofStanleyKubrick.
Nathan Andersen teaches philosophy and film at Eckerd College, USA. He programs an
award-winningcinemaseriesinTampaBay,Florida,andistheco-directorofthe“Visions
ofNature/VoicesofNature”EnvironmentalFilmFestival.Hehaspublishedarticlesonthe
historyofphilosophy,environmentalphilosophy,andfilm.
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’
Shadow Philosophy: Plato s
Cave and Cinema
Nathan Andersen
Firstpublished2014
ByRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAve.,NewYorkCity,NY.10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninforma
business
©2014NathanAndersen
Therightoftheauthortobeidentifiedastheauthoroftheeditorial
material,andoftheauthorsfortheirindividualchapters,hasbeen
assertedinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor
reproducedorutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,
orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,including
photocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageor
retrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand
explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Andersen,Nathan.
Shadowphilosophy:Plato’scaveandcinema/
NathanAndersen.--1[edition].
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Plato’scave(Allegory)2.Clockworkorange(Motionpicture)I.Title.
B398.C34A532014
320.092--dc23
2013040228
ISBN:978-0-415-74205-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-74206-1(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-81490-2(ebk)
TypesetinSabon
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface ix
Introduction: what we see on screen 1
1 Making sense of motion pictures: on faces and frames in
Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange 10
Faces and frames 11
Style music, and voice 20
2 Plato’s cave and cinema 34
Shadows on the wall 35
Projecting the light 48
3 Feeling and image: the Ludovico Technique 56
Rape and spectatorship 57
Music and morality 66
4 Plato’s critique of poetry and the peril and promise of cinema 73
Imitating art 73
Art’s potential 86
5 Justice and freedom: Alex’s cure 99
Justice and the nature of freedom 99
Alex’s cure: freedom and philosophy 107
Conclusion: shadow philosophy 118
Reality (metaphysics) 121
Responsibility (ethics) 125
vi Contents
Interpretation (epistemology) 126
Illuminating shadows (aesthetics) 128
Suggested films 135
Suggested readings (including all readings referred to
in the text) 138
Glossary of artists and thinkers, terms and concepts 141
Appendix: Summary of Plato’s Republic, book by book 152
Index 155
Acknowledgments
Books don’t write themselves; and no one writes a book by himself.
Although only a few of their names appear within, this book could not
have been written except after the works of so many others, who made
films and wrote novels, or wrote on philosophy, film studies, or the
philosophyoffilm.Tonamejustafew,themostimportantandobvious:
Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger and Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, the three great Stanleys (Kubrick, Donen, and Cavell),
Anthony Burgess, Malcolm McDowell, Gene Kelly, Hugo Münsterberg,
Rudolf Arnheim, Siegfried Kracauer, André Bazin, V.F. Perkins, Laura
Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Gilles Deleuze, Allan Bloom, John Sallis, John
Russon, Stephen Mulhall, Dan Shaw, Noël Carroll, Carl Plantinga,
Michel Chion, Eyal Peretz, John Mullarkey, and Robert Sinnerbrink.
Specialthankstosomanywhohelpeddirectly,throughconversationand
commentary on the topics discussed here during the percolating and
planningstages,encouragement,editingandfeedbackonpreviousdrafts:
Jared Stark, Christina Petersen, Cathy Griggs, Jason Sears, Jim Goetsch,
AndrewChittick, Julie Empric, BenElliott,Paul Higgins, Aaron Garrett,
RobertSinnerbrink,JohnMullarkey,PeterCostello,KymMaclaren,David
Ciavatta, Greg Recco, Susan Bredlau, Patricia Fagan, Ömer Aygün, Eric
Sanday, Shannon Hoff, Kirsten Jacobson, Hunter Vaughan, Dan Shaw,
and especially John Russon, for his mentoring and friendship for so
many years, and for being an exemplar of the philosophical life. Thanks
also to enthusiastic students in my film and philosophy classes through
theyears,especiallyRyanConrath.ThankstoEmmaJoyesatRoutledge,
for her patience with me and enthusiasm for the project, and especially
for saying yes! Thanks to Eckerd College for supporting the sabbatical
leave during which the bulk of it was written, to the participants of the
2012 Toronto Summer Seminar on Plato’s Republic, where I was able to
talk about that astonishing book with lots of very smart people just as
I was getting started, and for the Lloyd Chapin Faculty Fellowship that
viii Acknowledgments
made it possible to be there and stay a few extra weeks in Toronto,
sorting through the thoughts that followed. To Joel, Kate, Isaac, and
Sorella–whothoughtitcoolDadwaswritingabook,evenifIwouldn’t
let them see the film on which it was focused. Above all, and always, to
Andrea.
Preface
Alargegroupofprisonerssits,bound inthedepthsofanancientcavern.
Compelled forever to stare at shadows cast by a bonfire behind them,
they consider these to be what’s real. Mistaking appearances for true
reality, only a few of them discover their error, when they’re dragged
from the cave and forced to see things by the blinding light of the sun.
It’s one of the most famous images from the history of philosophy,
Plato’sallegoryofthecave,whosedepictionoftheconditionofeveryday
life resembles nothing so much as the contemporary experience of
watching movies. In fact, similar imagery is found and related themes
explored in quite a number of relatively recent movies, especially science
fiction films such as The Matrix or Total Recall, in which a leading
character discovers that the world as he thought he knew it was a lie, an
illusion. The ease with which the cinema depicts distortions of reality,
giving weight to skeptical concerns that might seem abstract and unreal
when described in the terminology of old books, has led a number of
philosophers to become encouraged by the pedagogical merits of using
film in the philosophy classroom.
Films naturally illustrate a wide range of philosophical issues, ranging
from questions having to do with the conundrums of time travel, the
relation between mind and body and the nature of personal identity, to
ethical and aesthetic questions. In the past decade or so, a wide range of
studies have appeared considering the scenarios presented in films and
television programs as examples and illustrations of traditional philoso-
phicalthemes.Theapproachtofilmthattreatsitasasourceofillustrations
and examples to introduce and explore philosophical themes – developed
independently of reflections on cinema – has been described variously as
“FilmandPhilosophy”or“FilmasIllustration.”
Yet films not only serve as handy illustrations of philosophical issues,
but also raise philosophical questions of their own. Many of these
questionsoverlapwithquestionsoftraditionalaesthetics,appliedhereto