A Moderately Pessimistic Perspective on “Cooperative Naturalism”

Projections ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Davies
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Epistemic Value ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Film Experience ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Murray Smith’s plea for a “cooperative naturalism” that adopts a “triangulational” approach to issues in film studies is both timely and well-defended. I raise three concerns, however: one is external, relating to this strategy’s limitations, and two are internal, relating to Smith’s application of the strategy. While triangulation seems appropriate when we ask about the nature of film experience, other philosophical questions about film have an ineliminable normative dimension that triangulation cannot address. Empirically informed philosophical reflection upon the arts must be “moderately pessimistic” in recognizing this fact. The internal concerns relate to Smith’s claims about the value and neurological basis of cinematic empathy. First, while empathy plays a central role in film experience, I argue that its neurological underpinnings fail to support the epistemic value he ascribes to it. Second, I question Smith’s reliance, in triangulating, upon the work of the Parma school on “mirror neurons.”

‘Dracarys’ for all: TV series and experiential learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 135050762110533
Author(s):  
Brigitte Biehl
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Management Learning ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Film Experience ◽  
Specific Learning ◽  
Point Of Reference

Film has been widely used for management learning, mostly with a focus on the story rather than on the film experience. This study draws on arts-based learning literature, film studies and data from learning interactions, and develops a taxonomy of experiential learning with film as a specific art form and emotional medium. The taxonomy includes three elements: making a film experience, processing the experience and cultural aesthetic reflexivity. This study provides process steps and teaching strategies to help move management learners along in the process towards specific learning outcomes. It introduces a film analysis tool as a method that can be used to overcome aesthetic muteness when reflecting on the film experience. The acclaimed and contested TV series Game of Thrones serves as a point of reference, and examples feature the female leader Daenerys Targaryen. The approach is transferable across films and TV series to integrate knowing, experience and emotions and to use popular culture’s critical potential for management learning.

Mirror Neurons and Film Studies

Projections ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Turvey
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Recent Application ◽  
Empathic Response

This article surveys some of the major criticisms of mirror neuron explanations of human behavior within neuroscience and philosophy of mind. It then shows how these criticisms pertain to the recent application of mirror neuron research to account for some of our responses to movies, particularly our empathic response to film characters and our putative simulation of anthropomorphic camera movements. It focuses especially on the “egocentric” conception of the film viewer that mirror neuron research appears to license. In doing so, it develops a position called “serious pessimism” about the potential contribution of neuroscience to the study of film and art by building upon the “moderate pessimism” recently proposed by philosopher David Davies. It also offers some methodological recommendations for how film scholars should engage with the sciences.

Vertigo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano D’Aloia
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Contemporary Cinema ◽  
Contemporary Film

The chapter ‘Vertigo. Towards a Neurofilmology’ offers an introduction to the book’s contents and methods. The implementation of psychology of perception, philosophy of mind, and suggestions from cognitive neuroscience (in particular the role of ‘mirror neurons’ and the hypothesis of ‘embodied simulation’) has the capability to renew contemporary film theory and to reduce the distance between competing approaches (i.e. cognitivist and phenomenological film studies). ‘Neurofilmology’ adopts an enactive and embodied approach to cognition and provides interpretative tools for the exploration of contemporary cinema. Through a series of recurrent ‘aerial motifs’ in which the film character loses his/her equilibrium—acrobatics, fall, impact, overturning, and drift—the cinema offers an intense motor and emotional experience that puts the spectator’s somatosensory perception in tension. At the same time, it provides compensation by adopting embodied forms of regulation of stimuli and a dynamic restoration of gravity and orientation (the so called ‘disembodying-reembodying’ dynamic).

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
William P. Seeley
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Common ◽  
Normative Dimension

This chapter introduces a model aimed at dissolving general philosophical skepticism about research in cognitive science and aesthetics. The discussion is focused around what can be called the puzzle of locating art. The puzzle of locating art emerges from two skeptical arguments: the common perceptual mechanisms argument and the normative dimension of appreciation argument. The central argument of the chapter is that skepticism about the value of cognitive science to explanations of art is an artifact of a confusion among cognitive scientists about the role of aesthetics in the arts and a confusion among philosophers about the role information from neuroscience plays in psychological explanations.

scholarly journals Memories of cinemagoing and film experience: An introduction

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Kuhn ◽  
Daniel Biltereyst ◽  
Philippe Meers
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Film ◽  
Film Experience ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Relationship

Over the past two decades, the relationship between cinema and memory has been the object of increasing academic attention, with growing interest in film and cinema as repositories for representing, shaping, (re)creating or indexing forms of individual and collective memory. This Special Issue on memory and the experience of cinemagoing centres on the perspective of cinema users and audiences, focusing on memories of films, cinema and cinemagoing from three continents and over five decades of the twentieth century. This introduction considers the relationship between memory studies and film studies, sets out an overview of the origins of, and recent and current shifts and trends within, research and scholarship at the interface between historical film audiences, the cinemagoing experience and memory; and presents the articles and reviews which follow within this frame. It considers some of the methodological issues raised by research in these areas and concludes by looking at some of the challenges facing future work in the field.

1. What is the philosophy of religion?

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Tim Bayne
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Religion And Theology ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Abrahamic Religions ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
The Way

Philosophy of religion is concerned with philosophical questions prompted by religious faith and experience. Some of these questions concern religion generally; others concern particular families of religion; and some concern particular religious traditions. ‘What is the philosophy of religion?’ explains how there is an intimate relationship between philosophy of religion and theology, but that the nature and location of the border between them is of some dispute. Some religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, embrace philosophical reflection, whereas the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—contain very little in the way of explicit philosophical reflection. Despite this, numerous Abrahamic philosophers have made important contributions to the philosophy of religion.

Perennial Questions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Winner
Keyword(s):  
Art Making ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Subsequent Chapter ◽  
Philosophical Questions

This chapter explains the approach of the book: taking puzzling questions about the arts, often posed by philosophers, and examining how psychologists have reframed these questions so that they can be addressed empirically. The topics covered in each subsequent chapter are then previewed: Part I (Chapters 1–2) introduces the book and deals with the question of defining art, Part II (Chapters 3–7) is about art and emotion, Part III (Chapters 8–11) is about art and judgment, Part IV (Chapters 12–14) is about how art making affects us, Part V (Chapter 15) is about who becomes an artist, and Part VI (Chapter 16) concludes the book by summarizing the key ways in which psychologists have taken philosophical questions as a jumping off point for examining how we experience art.

The Production and Use of the Film It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti to Challenge the Exclusion of Survivors’ Experiences from Peacekeeping Success Stories 

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 642-663
Author(s):  
Siobhán Wills ◽  
Cahal McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The People ◽  
Excessive Use Of Force

Abstract During its operations against gangs in the period 2004–2007 the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) killed and injured many people who were not posing a threat to anyone and were not involved in criminal activity. In Operations Iron Fist (2005) and New Forest (2006) an estimated 60 people were killed, some by bullets fired from helicopters penetrating the roofs of their corrugated metal shacks. Survivors claim that no one from the UN or from any state agency has ever visited their neighbourhood to speak to them—‘it’s as though you’re worthless’. This article discusses the making of the film It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti—which was produced using participatory practices—and the project team’s use of the film to raise awareness of the need for reform of UN rules of engagement and for an investigation into excessive use of force by MINUSTAH. The article also discusses the use of the film to challenge the exclusion from the MINUSTAH success narrative of the stories of the people who live in the targeted community, and to provide a platform that might enable the experiences of survivors to be publicly acknowledged internationally. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, It Stays With You forms part of an interdisciplinary law and film studies research project, which explores the role of film as a method of addressing trauma and as a means of highlighting the need for a human rights-oriented approach to accountability in the conduct of UN law enforcement operations.

scholarly journals CONNECTING BRIDGES THROUGH THEATRICAL DESIGN: AN EXAMINATION OF “ASIRI NLA” IN PERFORMANCE

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tochukwu. J. Okeke
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Set Design ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
National Integration ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Theatrical Design ◽  
Stage Manager ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Creative Artists

The theatre provides an avenue for the expression of very salient and topical issues about a people through the presentation of performances. These performances, which are often in form of plays, are always created by playwrights and that is why playwrights are said to be the watch dogs of the society because their works x-ray past and present situations while proffering solutions for the future. However, the theatre is a composite art which involves the collaboration of many creative artists: Playwright, Director, Stage Manager, Actor(s), Designer(s), amongst others. The designer(s) are the creative artists that interpret the play in visual terms. Their creativity gives a better understanding to the play in performance as the dramatic piece is given further expressions through the actors‟ costumes, properties, lighting and scenery. This essay will interrogated the use of costume and set design in bridging ethnic divides using a Workshop performance of “Asiri Nla” as performed by students of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka at the Arts Theatre. The study found that through an effective set design and appropriate use of costumes that the production was able to unite different peoples under one roof without acrimony thus, it recommended at the effectiveness of design in theatrical productions is a sure way of enhancing national integration.

How Can the Living Ties be Severed in the Field of Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-129
Author(s):  
Irina Kitova
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Film Distribution ◽  
Structure Of Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Film Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
The Ideal

In this paper we will try to apply Kuhn’s views on the structure of scientific revolutions in the field of culture and film art. We will try to find to what extent we can apply or reject such understandings of the field of culture, even if only in the strictly national dimensions of a cultural phenomenon. By tracking the development of the film art and industry through the changes they cause or the cultural functions they perform, we can verify whether and to what extent the ideal in science is comparable to the ideal in the culture and the arts. We will also be looking for anomalies, non-functional paradigms and paradoxes, which could influence not only the development of culture in national context, but also the construction of the essential matter of the cultural field as a unique global phenomenon, the result of human activity, ideas and creativity.Through the history of building the first movie theater “Modern Theater” in Bulgaria, in 1908, the beginning and evolution of cinema as an art, a national cine-ma industry, film networks and film distribution, film studies and film education will trace the genesis of a new layer in the field of the Bulgarian national culture and the preconditions for its sustainability, significance and vitality.

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