Morality, Metaphysics and the
Meaning of Life
PHILOSOPHY
THROUGH FILM
Kelly Inglis
Office: Philosophy Department MB306
Office hours: by appointment
Email: kellyinglis@yahoo.com
About the course
Wednesdays 2:00-5:00
Classroom: Meng Wah Complex T1
For schedule, readings, announcements, etc., see
course blog:
kellyinglis.wordpress.com
Course content
 Philosophy through movies
 Exploration of philosophical ideas, puzzles,
problems and dilemmas as introduced through 10
thought-provoking movies
 Every week:
 Lecture on philosophical topic
 Movie
 Short post-movie discussion
Tutorials
 Tutorials to discuss how the movies handle
the philosophical issues
 15 students per tutorial
 Discussion is extremely important
 You must attend 5 tutorials
Tutorial arrangements
 There are 10 tutorials for 10 movies
 But you only attend 5
 Two categories of tutorials
 Category one: The Matrix, Thank you for Smoking, Bicentennial
Man, Memento, Groundhog Day
 Category two: Quiz Show, Minority Report, the Prestige, Kate
and Leopold, Life is Beautiful
 Tutorial schedule will be posted next week.
 Tutorials start on Sept. 15th
Tutorial participation
Tutorial presentations:
Every week you will be given a list of questions about the
movie.
For one tutorial, you must prepare a short presentation (2-3
minutes) on your answer to one question and lead a
discussion on this question in the tutorial
This counts for 20% of your grade.
For every tutorial, you must participate in the discussion.
This counts for 30% of your grade.
Portfolio
 You must write a short answer (2 pages) to one
question on each of 8 movies (out of 10).
 Due at the end of the course.
 50% of your grade
 Assessment summary:
 Class presentation in tutorial: 20%
 Tutorial participation: 30%
 Portfolio: 50%
Suggested readings
 No required reading
 Suggested readings every week
 Copies of readings available in the Philosophy
Department office
 Ask Loletta
What is philosophy?
Tackling the big questions
Morality
What is moral? Where does morality come from? How do
we decide what is moral?
Metaphysics
What is real? What can we know? What is a person? Do
we have free will? What is logically possible?
The Meaning of Life
Does life have meaning? What makes a good life?
Philosophical topics in this
course
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Skepticism
Morality
Paternalism vs. Individual Rights
Free Will
Personhood
Personal Identity
The Extended Mind
Problems and Paradoxes of Time Travel
The Meaning of Life
Interpreting Reality
Skepticism
 Is the world real?
 What can we know?
 Are we dreaming?
 Are we brains in a vat?
 Are we part of a computer program?
Plato’s cave
Plato
 Ancient Greek philosopher
 Approx. 427 BC – 348 BC
 The Republic
The cave
Reality vs. illusion
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The cave is an illusion
Outside the cave is reality
The prisoner’s know only the illusion
Are we like the prisoners?
Is there another world that is more real than this
world?
 Spectrum of reality:
Illusion
shadows
reflections
Reality
ordinary objects
the apparent world
the Forms
the real world
Descartes
French philosopher and mathematician
(1596-1650)
Radical skepticism
Doubt everything
I am dreaming.
A demon is deceiving me.
What cannot be doubted?
I think therefore I am.
Thoughts, ideas, perceptions are real.
Everything else is in doubt.
Maybe the world is not real.
Zhuangzi
 Ancient Chinese philosopher
(4th century B.C.)
 Dreamt he was a butterfly
 “Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and
fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased.
He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there
he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if
he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a
butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.” (2, tr. Burton Watson
1968:49)
 Could you be dreaming right now?
 Could your whole life be a dream?
 How could you know?
Plato vs. Descartes
 Descartes: I am real, you are not
 Plato: we’re in the same dream
 Note: Plato taught that this world is not real but
there is a higher reality. Descartes ultimately
decided that the world we see and experience is real.
Zhuangzi??
Suggested readings on Skepticism
Internet Sources:
•
Plato, Allegory of the Cave, at:
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
•
Descartes, First Meditation, Second Meditation (up to section 3), at:
http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/mede.html
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Daniel Dennett, “Where am I?”, at:
http://www.cs.umu.se/kurser/TDBC12/HT99/Dennett.html
On reserve in Philosophy Dept. Office:
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Stephen Law, The Philosophy Gym, Chapter 3, “Brain-Snatched”