Filmosophy or Film as Philosophy: An Essay in Possibility of Pholosophizing through Film

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Mohsen Karami
Art University, Philosophy of Art
10.30470/phm.2021.136600.1880
Abstract
The relation between film and philosophy is not so easy that firstly seems. On the one hand, philosophers discuss the nature of film and, for example, ask: what makes a recording a work of art? And, on the other hand, some filmmakers attempt to utilize philosophical themes in their works and produce philosophical movies. But it is not the whole story, and a third claim has been proposed in recent dedicates: Some movies can philosophize. This new approach usually is called “film as philosophy”, “film-philosophy”, or “filmosophy”. Several arguments have been advanced in defense of this hypothesis, and every defender of this claim has proposed their own explanations. In this essay, we try to show from a different position, that movies can do philosophy in six ways. That is, there are movies that make an account of a philosophical point, movies that ask some philosophical questions, movies that defend or deny a philosophical position, movies that propose a philosophical thesis, and movies that remind us important things.

Keywords

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Philosophical Meditations
Volume 11, Issue 27 - Serial Number 227
December 2022
Pages 353-379