Hitchcock and Philosophy

Author: David Baggett
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812697839
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
The shower scene in Psycho; Cary Grant running for his life through a cornfield; “innocent” birds lined up on a fence waiting, watching — these seminal cinematic moments are as real to moviegoers as their own lives. But what makes them so? What deeper forces are at work in Hitchcock’s films that so captivate his fans? This collection of articles in the series that’s explored such pop-culture phenomena as Seinfeld and The Simpsons examines those forces with fresh eyes. These essays demonstrate a fascinating range of topics: Sabotage’s lessons about the morality of terrorism and counter-terrorism; Rope’s debatable Nietzschean underpinnings; Strangers on a Train’s definition of morality. Some of the essays look at more overarching questions, such as why Hitchcock relies so heavily on the Freudian unconscious. In all, the book features 18 philosophers paying a special homage to the legendary auteur in a way that’s accessible even to casual fans.

The Philosophical Hitchcock

Author: Robert B. Pippin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022650378X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Book Description
On the surface, The Philosophical Hitchcock: Vertigo and the Anxieties of Unknowingness, is a close reading of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece Vertigo. This, however, is a book by Robert B. Pippin, one of our most penetrating and creative philosophers, and so it is also much more. Even as he provides detailed readings of each scene in the film, and its story of obsession and fantasy, Pippin reflects more broadly on the modern world depicted in Hitchcock’s films. Hitchcock’s characters, Pippin shows us, repeatedly face problems and dangers rooted in our general failure to understand others—or even ourselves—very well, or to make effective use of what little we do understand. Vertigo, with its impersonations, deceptions, and fantasies, embodies a general, common struggle for mutual understanding in the late modern social world of ever more complex dependencies. By treating this problem through a filmed fictional narrative, rather than discursively, Pippin argues, Hitchcock is able to help us see the systematic and deep mutual misunderstanding and self-deceit that we are subject to when we try to establish the knowledge necessary for love, trust, and commitment, and what it might be to live in such a state of unknowingness. A bold, brilliant exploration of one of the most admired works of cinema, The Philosophical Hitchcock will lead philosophers and cinephiles alike to a new appreciation of Vertigo and its meanings.

Hitchcock as Philosopher

Author: Robert J. Yanal
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
"The work discusses 12 Hitchcock films and reads them as raising and putting forth a position on three problem areas of epistemology: deception, knowledge of mind, and problematic knowledge of the external world. Introductions to these philosophical concepts are given, as well as summaries to the films analyzed"--Provided by publisher.

Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science

Author: Christopher Hitchcock
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9781405101516
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science contains sixteen original essays by leading authors in the philosophy of science, each one defending the affirmative or negative answer to one of eight specific questions, including: Are there laws of social science? Are causes physically connected to their effects? Is the mind a system of modules shaped by natural selection? Brings together fresh debates on eight of the most controversial issues in the philosophy of science. Questions addressed include: “Are there laws of social science?”; “Are causes physically connected to their effects?”; “Is the mind a system of modules shaped by natural selection?” Each question is treated by a pair of opposing essays written by eminent scholars, and especially commissioned for the volume. Lively debate format sharply defines the issues, and paves the way for further discussion. Will serve as an accessible introduction to the major topics in contemporary philosophy of science, whilst also capturing the imagination of professional philosophers.

Hitchcock and the Cinema of Sensations

Author: Paul Elliott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857730940
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
When we talk of 'seeing' a film, we do not refer to a purely visual experience. Rather, to understand what we see on screen, we rely as much on non-visual senses as we do on sight. This new book rethinks the body in the cinema seat, charting the emergence of embodied film theory and drawing on developments in philosophy, neuroscience, body politics and film theory. Through the prism of Alfred Hitchcock's films, we explore how our bodies and sensual memory enable us to quite literally 'flesh out' what we see on screen: the trope of nausea in "Frenzy", pollution and smell in "Shadow of a Doubt", physical sound reception in the "Psycho" shower scene and the importance of corporeality and closeness in "Rear Window". We see how the body's sensations have a vital place in cinematic reception and the study of film.

Hitchcock's Bi-Textuality

Author: Robert Samuels
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791436103
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
Uses close readings of Hitchcock's films to combine an articulation of Lacan's theory of ethics with a discussion of recent theories of feminine subjectivity and queer textuality.

An Eye for Hitchcock

Author: Murray Pomerance
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813533957
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Film scholar Murray Pomerance presents a series of meditations on six films directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, a master of the cinema. Two of the films are extraordinarily famous and have been seen - and misunderstood - countless times: North by Northwest and Vertigo. Two others, Marnie and Torn Curtain, have been mostly disregarded by viewers and critics, or considered to be colossal mistakes, while two others, Spellbound and I Confess have received almost no critical attention at all. Hitchcock's vision and his screen architecture, revealing key elements and showing how Hitchcock was profoundly interested not only in social class, but also in humanity's philosophical predicament, as we traverse a world fraught with shifting appearances, multiple deceptions, vulnerability and peril. Pomerance also reveals the link between Hitchcock's work and a wide range of thinkers and artists in other fields.

Making a Difference

Author: Helen Beebee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198746911
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Book Description
Making a Difference presents fifteen original essays on causation and counterfactuals by an international team of experts. Collectively, they represent the state of the art on these topics. The essays in this volume are inspired by the life and work of Peter Menzies, who made a difference in the lives of students, colleagues, and friends. Topics covered include: the semantics of counterfactuals, agency theories of causation, the context-sensitivity of causal claims, structural equation models, mechanisms, mental causation, causal exclusion argument, free will, and the consequence argument.

Three Philosophical Filmmakers

Author: Irving Singer
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262195010
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
Reassesses the different visions of filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Jean Renoir, drawing on their writings and movies to reveal how they became sophisticated theorists on film and its place in the human experience.

The Philosophy of Film Noir

Author: Mark T. Conard
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813171709
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
A drifter with no name and no past, driven purely by desire, is convinced by a beautiful woman to murder her husband. A hard-drinking detective down on his luck becomes involved with a gang of criminals in pursuit of a priceless artifact. The stories are at once romantic, pessimistic, filled with anxiety and a sense of alienation, and they define the essence of film noir. Noir emerged as a prominent American film genre in the early 1940s, distinguishable by its use of unusual lighting, sinister plots, mysterious characters, and dark themes. From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), films from this classic period reflect an atmosphere of corruption and social decay that attracted such accomplished directors as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles. The Philosophy of Film Noir is the first volume to focus exclusively on the philosophical underpinnings of these iconic films. Drawing on the work of diverse thinkers, from the French existentialist Albert Camus to the Frankurt school theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, the volume connects film noir to the philosophical questions of a modern, often nihilistic, world. Opening with an examination of what constitutes noir cinema, the book interprets the philosophical elements consistently present in the films—themes such as moral ambiguity, reason versus passion, and pessimism. The contributors to the volume also argue that the essence and elements of noir have fundamentally influenced movies outside of the traditional noir period. Neo-noir films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Fight Club (1999), and Memento (2000) have reintroduced the genre to a contemporary audience. As they assess the concepts present in individual films, the contributors also illuminate and explore the philosophical themes that surface in popular culture. A close examination of one of the most significant artistic movements of the twentieth century, The Philosophy of Film Noir reinvigorates an intellectual discussion at the intersection of popular culture and philosophy.