Ethics Goes to the Movies An Introduction to Moral Philosophy

Movies hold a mirror up to us, portraying the complexities of human reality through their characters and stories. And they vividly illustrate moral theories that address questions about how we are to live and what sort of people we ought to be. In this book, Christopher Falzon uses movies to provide a rich survey of moral positions as they have emerged through history. These include the ethics of the ancient world, medieval ethics, Enlightenment and Kantian ethics, existentialist ethics and the ethics of the other. Each theory is explained in detail, using a number of examples from the book?s wide selection of movies. The discussion draws on a range of recent and not-so-recent films, from Hollywood blockbusters to art-house cinema.

Key Features:

• In addition to covering thinkers one would expect in an introduction to ethics (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Kant), the book discusses less canonical figures in detail as well (e.g., Marcuse, Foucault, Habermas).
• Similarly, the book examines both major ethical theories (e.g., Kantianism, utilitarianism, virtue ethics) and theories too often glossed over in introductory texts (e.g. Stoicism, Epicureanism, Habermas's discourse ethics and Nietzschean ethics).
• A wide range of movies are discussed, from Hollywood blockbusters and classics like The Dark Knight, Casablanca and Dirty Harry to lesser known films, like Force Majeure and Under the Skin.
• Atthe end of each chapter a focus on two feature films is included, with a plot summary and interpretations of several key scenes with a time marker indicating when in the film the scenes occur.
• A Filmography includes all movies discussed in the book and a Glossary covers key philosophical terms and figures; both with corresponding page numbers.

Acknowledgements

Introduction – Rear Window Ethics

What is ethics?

Film as experimental

Exploring ethics through film

Chapter 1. Excess and obsession – Ancient ethics

Why be moral

Plato’s moral theory

Aristotle and virtue ethics

Stoicism

Epicureanism

Feature films: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Under the Skin

Chapter 2. Sin and self-denial: Religious ethics

Divine command

Augustine

Aquinas and natural law

The problem of evil

Feature films: Crimes and Misdemeanors, and The Addiction

Chapter 3. Pleasure, happiness and rights: Enlightenment ethics

Hobbes and the social contract

Enlightenment and happiness

Utilitarianism

Rights

The libertine and scientific morality

Feature films: Dirty Harry, and The Dark Knight

Chapter 4. Personhood and autonomy: Kantian ethics

Duty and desire

Persons

Autonomy

Marx

Habermas and discourse ethics

Feature films: High Noon, and No Country for Old Men

Chapter 5. Slaves, supermen and authentic selves: Existentialist ethics

Nietzsche

Kierkegaard

Twentieth-century existentialism: Sartre et al.

The social situation: de Beauvoir

Feature films: Rope, and Fight Club

Chapter 6. Encounters with aliens: Ethics and the other

The critique of ‘traditional’ ethics

The ethics of care

Levinas and the ethics of the other

Foucault, ethics and power

Experiments in living

Feature films: Casablanca, and Force Majeure

Filmography

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Christopher Falzon is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is the author of Foucault and Social Dialogue (1998) and Philosophy Goes to the Movies (3rd edition, 2014), and the co-editor of Foucault and Philosophy (2010) and ABlackwell Companion to Foucault (2013).