Does Film Hav The Potential To Not Only Deal With Particular Philosophical Issues And Subjects, But Can Also Be Understood As A Form Of Philosophical Thinking In Its Own Right Essay

I have been given the following statement “Film has the potential to not only deal with particular philosophical issues and subjects, but can also be understood as a form of philosophical thinking in its own right”. The following discussion will be about this statement, I know that to try and prove this statement true or false would require a lengthy discussion of more that 2500 words and so I will not try to do this. Instead I will asses the statement and take into account the opinions of philosophers, other essays and my own, to try and bring about my side of the argument.

Before I can properly talk about this subject I must firstly answer the questions “What is Philosophy?” And “What is film?” The first question has no real answer. There are two things to note about this question. First of all, it is itself a philosophical question, and second, like most philosophical questions, it is difficult to come up with a straightforward answer”(1). So if we cannot give an accurate answer, for the sake of this essay I will give my shorted opinion of what Philosophy is. Philosophy is the quest for knowledge by asking questions about various subjects witch people take for granted such as life, consciousness, identity, socialism, society and many more subject matters. The next question is: What is film? The basic answer to this is moving image, whether it being feature length Hollywood films or shorter Avant-garde / Experimental films or videos.

Film is not a typical and frequent subject looked at by philosophers. However some philosophers have looked into the philosophical ideas that may underline some films, such as Christopher Falzon and Stephen Mulhall. Others have steered away from films condemning them to be purely visual material and said that films are of no help to philosophy. Philosophers have often portrayed the use of visual image as indicative of a more privative or childlike thought (2). I would disagree with this statement and argue that visual imagery...