TEACHING STUDENTS
TO THINK
PHILOSOPHY IN FILM
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS AND
PHILOSOPHERS
 Two
ways of incorporating philosophy into
film: ideas and philosophers.
 Ideas: we do this anyway through theme.
Just emphasise the philosophical ideas.
 Philosophers: find a philosopher whose
ideas are explored. Explore that
philosopher’s theories and then look at
other philosophers that oppose those
ideas.
FREAKY FRIDAY
THE PROBLEM OF PERSONAL IDENTITY
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU BECAME YOUR
MOTHER?
WHAT HAPPENS IN FREAKY FRIDAY?
 A busy
psychologist and her imageconscious daughter are always arguing.
 Each one feels that the other one does not
understand her point of view.
 Each one feels that the other one’s life is
easier to live.
 They swap and are trapped in one
another’s bodies.
WHAT IS BEING SWAPPED?
 MIND
 BODY
 SOUL
 CONSCIOUSNESS
 IDENTITY
 PERSONALITY
WHAT IS THE MIND?
WHAT IS THE BODY?
WHAT IS THE SOUL?
WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?
WHAT IS IDENTITY?
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
PHILOSOPHERS
 RENE
DESCARTES
The mind-body problem
 JOHN LOCKE
The idea of consciousness
RENE DESCARTES
There are two main beliefs:
 1. MATERIALISM: The mind is part of our
brain; our thoughts and feelings are
nothing more than physical processes
taking place in our brain.
 All experiences are caused by our sensory
organs sending electrical impulses to our
brains.
 The mind is part of the body and they
cannot be separated.
CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY
 2.
DUALISM: The mind is not part of our
physical body and is separate from the
brain.
 It interacts with the brain, but is not the
same thing as the brain.
 Our thoughts, feelings, emotions etc. are
something extra: something in addition to
just physical impulses.
 We can therefore separate our minds and
our brain.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
I
believe that my mind is part of my brain.
 I believe that my mind is separate from my
brain and body.
 I believe that my mind is the same as my
soul.
 I believe in re-incarnation.
 I believe that my mind defines my identity.
JOHN LOCKE: THE IDEA OF CONSCIOUSNESS
 Personal
identity depends on
consciousness.
 We are identified as the same person if we
are conscious of our past and future
thoughts and actions in the same way as
we are conscious of our present thoughts
and actions.
 A soul can be re-incarnated, but it is not a
consciousness.
Souls and Thoughts

Souls are thinking substances. They are not
thoughts; they are things that think.
 The relation between a soul and its thoughts
can be likened to the relation between a
pincushion and its pins.
 Just as a pincushion can have different pins
in it at different times, the same soul can
have different thoughts in it at different times.
SOME PERSONAL IDENTITY PUZZLES
 The
ship of Theseus
 Suppose that the planks in Theseus’s ship
have been replaced one by one over the
years until none of the original planks
remained.
 Suppose further that the original planks
were saved and put back into their original
order.
 Which ship is identical to the original?
SOME PERSONAL IDENTITY PUZZLES

The brave Officer and the senile General
 A brave officer who skillfully stole a flag from an
enemy also stole an apple from an orchard
when he was a boy. As the officer ages, he
becomes a senile general. As a senile general,
he remembers stealing the flag, but does not
remember stealing the apple. According to
Locke, the senile general is identical to the
brave officer, but not identical to the boy.
SOME PERSONAL IDENTITY PUZZLES
 Locke’s
Tale of the Prince and the Cobbler
 “For should the Soul of a Prince, carrying
with it the consciousness of the Prince’s
past life, enter and inform the Body of a
Cobbler…every one sees, he would be the
same Person with the Prince.”
Thought Experiment: The King of China

Suppose someone offered to make you the
King of China on the condition that you lose
all of your memories.
 In such a case, it’s doubtful that you would be
around to enjoy the wealth even though,
presumably, your soul would be.
 So having the same soul may not be a
necessary condition for being the same
person.
SOME EXPRESSIONS ABOUT THE MIND
What’s on your mind?
 Are you losing your
mind?
 Are you out of your
mind?
 A mind is a terrible thing
to waste.
 You are always on my
mind.
 Great minds think alike!
 Free your mind.
 It is a matter of mind over
matter.


in one's mind's eye
 in one's right mind
 know one's own mind
 Load off one's mind
 make up one's mind
 meeting of the minds
 never mind
 of two minds
EXPRESSIONS ABOUT THE MIND


bear in mind
blow one's mind
 boggle the mind
 bring to mind
 call to mind
 cross one's mind
 change one's mind
 come to mind
 frame of mind
 go out of one's mind


one-track mind
on one's mind
 open mind
 out of sight (out of mind)
 piece of one's mind
 presence of mind
 prey on one's mind
 read someone's mind
 Put one's mind at rest
 slip one's mind
 speak one's mind
AND EVEN MORE EXPRESSIONS…

its all in your mind
 don't mind
 put your mind to it
 mind bending
 narrow minded
 messing with your mind
 mind games
 mind is like a sponge
 keep in mind
OTHER FILMS THAT EXPLORE THIS IDEA…
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY MORE?
YEAR 9 FILMS
 Freaky
Friday and the Problem of
Personal Identity: Descartes, Locke, Reid.
Philosophical puzzles: Ship of Theseus.
 Jurassic
 Meet
Park and the Ethics of Cloning.
the Robinsons: paradoxes of time
travel.
YEAR 10 FILMS
 Back
to the Future and the Paradoxes of
Time Travel.
 Any
 The
Harry Potter: good vs. evil
Day the Earth Stood Still: ecological
ethics- Picard
Year 11 Films
 The
Matrix: Reality, Truth and Freedom.
Plato, Baudrillard, Foucault, Descartes etc.
 A.I:
What defines Life or Are Computers
capable of independent thought and/or
emotions? Turing test, Searle.
YEAR 12 FILMS
 The
Prestige: the ethics of cloning, identity
 Gattaca:
Fate vs. Free will
 I-Robot:
Can machines think?
YEAR 13 FILMS
 Fight
Club: Existentialism, Nihilism and
Identity. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche
 Being
John Malkovic: Existentialism,
Cartesian Dualism
 Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
Kant and the morality of memory
WHERE TO AFTER THAT?
 Encourage
students to research a
particular philosopher and his/her theories
 Or a particular idea and all the
philosophies linked to that idea
 Then look at other texts that use the same
ideas- evaluate to what extent
 Find similar ideas/theories in the texts you
study