1. I taught a class called 'Understanding Philosophy through Science Fiction' last summer.
2. I just watched 'Last Action Hero'; it was amazing.
I'm thinking next year I'll teach this class again, but only use Arnold Schwarzenegger's fine films. There's not space here to discuss all of Arnold's art, but every movie I've seen yet has some serious philosophical content. Check it:
Total Recall:
Total Recall is the best movie ever. It's based on 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale' by Philip K. Dick, and it's got all of the Dickian themes in full force. Topics for discussion:
a. Cartesian Skepticism: is Quaid experiencing reality, or is he undergoing a process of memory implantation? Are the events in the movie real or figments of his computer-controlled imagination? Unlike less cerebral science fiction movies, like Dark City and The Matrix, this issue is never fully settled in the film.
b. Personal Identity: Arnold's character, Quaid, undergoes a complete loss of memory accompanied by severe personality changes. Is he identical to Hauser, his earlier self? Sometimes he seems to think he is; at other times he doesn't ("I need your body" is one line I remember). In general, do our bodies make us who we are, or is it our memories and psychological states that tie our timeslices together?
c. Transhumanism: Because of a higher exposure to cosmic radiation, native Martians have a much higher rate of genetic disease and deformity. This is accompanied by heightened mental capabilities; the martian leader, Kuato, is able to read minds. What are the real prospects for future human evolution?
d. Michael Ironside.
Terminator and T2
These movies are killer examples of different types of time travel.
Terminator involves logically consistent backwards time travel (what Peter Van Inwagen calls 'Ludovickian time travel'). There's a neat tight loop, where the events and the end of the movie cause and explain the events at the beginning, and vice versa. There are a bunch of other sweet stories that involve this sort of time travel: All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps, both by Heinlein, and the movies 12 Monkeys and The Time Traveler's Wife, both of which are based on La Jetee. In this sort of story, events in the past cause things in the future to go back and cause the same things in the past. Everything happens just once in a mind-boggling causal circle. Topics to discuss? Causation, explanation, personal identity, the nature of time, the physical possibility of time travel.
T2 is logically inconsistent time travel: people go back in time and change the past, unmaking that which the world had made. Other stories like this? The Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury and possibly Philip K. Dick's Ubik; movies Back to the Future 1-3 and The Butterfly Effect (named for The Sound of Thunder). These are interesting because many people naturally understand them better than the consistent ones. They also allow for pretty interesting evaluations of counterpossibilities. Topics? Free will, causation, counterfactuals, local vs. global consistency...
The Running Man
This dystopian future pits a lone freedom fighter against a totalitarian state in a televised gladiator-style duel to the death. It's amazing. It's also our first gubernatorial movie, starring future governor Arnold against Minnesota governor Jesse the Body Ventura. Discussables: theories of punishment, the role of government and the media, justifications for insurgency... and if we want to get wild, Guy Debord.
Junior
In one of two Arnold/DeVito pairings, both presumably dreamed up by size-surprised Hollywood moguls, Arnold plays a research biologist who intentionally impregnates himself after losing funding for his research on monkeys. After intense deliberation, he decides to have the baby. It's crazy. Watch it, and think deeply about reproductive rights, animal testing, human testing, animal rights, gender roles, and the effect of government intervention on scientific research.
Last Action Hero
A movie according to which a kid takes a magic ticket into a movie, pulls the main character of the fictional movie into the first-level movie-reality, and thereby gains a fake-father-figure. This clip is from a daydream about a play within a movie within the (main) movie. SO META! (and before it was cool). Do fictional characters exist? Is either fiction more real? Is there a meaning to 'verisimilitude?' Who would win in a fight: Real Arnold, Fictionalnold, or Danny DeVito, Voice of the Talking Cat?
A movie according to which a kid takes a magic ticket into a movie, pulls the main character of the fictional movie into the first-level movie-reality, and thereby gains a fake-father-figure. This clip is from a daydream about a play within a movie within the (main) movie. SO META! (and before it was cool). Do fictional characters exist? Is either fiction more real? Is there a meaning to 'verisimilitude?' Who would win in a fight: Real Arnold, Fictionalnold, or Danny DeVito, Voice of the Talking Cat?
Predator
This movie rules. I try to watch it daily. Here's some bullshit I could tie into it: Capitalism and exploitation (given the intro), dietary ethics and animal rights, the qualifications for public office (Jesse and Arnold's gubernatorial success has already been mentioned; Sonny Landham tried and failed for governor and senator of Kentucky, calling Arabic folks 'ragheads' in the process).
That's all for now; I'll be back as soon as I watch Twins. In the mean time, because this is a fried food blog, here are some pictures of fried beet chips (super tasty but a little soggy):
That's all for now; I'll be back as soon as I watch Twins. In the mean time, because this is a fried food blog, here are some pictures of fried beet chips (super tasty but a little soggy):
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