PHIL 353 | Philosophy of Film

This course surveys some of the fundamental philosophical questions that arise from cinema as an art form. What is a film? What does it have in common with, and how does it differ from, other arts, such as theater or photography? What challenges does cinema pose to the traditional understanding of art? Other topics covered may include: the problem of identifying authorship in film; reasons and nature of our emotional engagement with movies; puzzles concerning film narration; the relation between film and society. At the end of the course students collaborate to make a film.