Abstract
Ever since I first stumbled across the idea of film as philosophy, I have been excited by it. It seems to me that films can ‘think seriously and systematically … in just the ways that philosophers do,’ as Stephen Mulhall put it (Mulhall, 2002, p2). How it can do so, however, turns out to be very hard to pin down. Reflecting on this forces us to think more clearly about how philosophy normally does philosophy in the first place. If the idea of film as philosophy is problematic, then the philosophy part is at least as troublesome as the film component.
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References
Dennett, D. C., 1989. The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Descartes, R., 1986. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by J. Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Frampton, D., 2006. Filmosophy. London: Wallflower Press.
Mulhall, S., 2002. On Film. London: Routledge.
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Filmography
Barton Fink (Joel Coen, USA, 1991).
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, USA, 1998).
Burn after Reading (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA, 2008).
Fargo (Joel Coen, USA, 1996).
Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen, USA, 2003).
The Ladykillers (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA, 2004).
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen, USA, 2001).
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA, 2007).
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA, 2009).
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© 2011 Julian Baggini
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Baggini, J. (2011). Serious Men: The Films of the Coen Brothers as Ethics. In: Carel, H., Tuck, G. (eds) New Takes in Film-Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294851_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294851_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-25029-1
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