Questioning Style

According to tradition, philosophy begins in wonder. We might add that it usually ends in one of two ways, either in self-assured mastery or in thoughtful perplexity. Philosophical reflection on film presents an intriguing variation on this theme. Here too we find wonder at the cinema: what it is or how it works, what makes it so arresting, enchanting, or overwhelming. Nonetheless, like traditional philosophical reflection on art – think of Plato’s anxiety over the role of poetry in the polis – philosophers of film often end up disenfranchising cinema by reducing it to an instrumental example or passive theoretical object. Alternatively, however, philosophy can engage in a thoughtful meditation that accompanies film, translating the experience it affords into a different register and in doing so perhaps also transforming itself.