Index for Summer III ‘09

PHIL-4800/4900

Dr. Ari Santas

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Valdosta State University

Summer III 2009 (June 10 – July 1)

Philosophy, Identity, and Film

4800/4900 Syllabus 4800su09 Schedule for Readings and Deadlines

Study Questions

Babel Bladerunner Crash Dark City

Devil Wears Prada I ♥ Huckabees Imposter Matrix

Memento Minority Report Miss Congeniality Paycheck

Pleasantville Truman Show What the Bleep? Malcolm X

Little Miss Sunshine

Supplemental Online Materials and Texts

Texts for Unit I: Identity, Memory, and the Deceiver

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (cave theme prevalent throughout most of these films)

Text of the Allegory of the Cave            Santas’ Notes on the Cave

Selections from Moderns on Memory from John Perry’s Personal Identity Reader

Locke’s Memory Theory (the theory that personal identity is determined by our stored experiences—our memories)

Critiques of Memory Theory

Hume’s Skeptical Doubts

Berkeley’s Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (for a critique of Locke’s idea that sense perception points to an externally existing reality)

First Dialogue Second Dialogue Third Dialogue

Phillip K. Dick Resources (many of the films of the course are based on his works)

See http://www.philipkdick.com/

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

(see the discussion of being in jail in Part Two)

Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditation I (for discussion of doubt)

Meditation II (for a discussion of the self as a thinking thing)  

Meditation IV (on how to remove error and find truth)

Texts for Unit II: Identity, Fate, and Choice

Matrix and Philosophy Website: Matrix and Philosophy (lots of cool articles here)

See Matrix Scenes page for list of important scenes in Reloaded and Revolutions

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (an ancient Greek conception of virtue and the good life)

Book II (virtue and character)

Book III (virtue and choice)

Book VII (moral weakness and pleasure)

Leibniz’ Monadology (for a look at a unit of consciousness as a organization of perceptions)

Monadology

Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Section VIII (discussion for a discussion of Liberty and Necessity)

J.S. Mill’s On Liberty

Chapter III (on individuality)

Sartre’s Existentialism and Humanism

Supplemental Notes

Notes On Personal Identity and Film

Santas Notes on Theories of Self

Santas Notes on Identity, Memory and the Evil Genius in Film 

Santas Notes on Identity, Fate and Choice

Santas Notes on Constructed Identities

Notes On Plato’s Allegory of the Cave:

Santas Notes on the Cave

Notes on Aristotle’s Ethics

Santas Notes on Book II (virtue and character)

Santas Notes on Book III (virtue and choice)

Santas Notes on Book VII (moral weakness and pleasure)

Notes on Modern Philosophers

René Descartes: http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm

· Santas Notes Meditation I (discussion of doubt)

· Santas Notes Meditation II (discussion of the self as a thinking thing)  

· Santas Notes Meditation IV (removing error and finding truth)

 Hume’ Enquiry, VIII (on Liberty and Necessity)

· Santas Notes Enquiry, VIII

Notes on J.S. Mill

Santas Notes On Liberty, Section III (on individuality)

Online Student Evaluations

Instructions for Online Student Evaluations