Philosophy Through Film

Some of the world’s best-loved films can be used as springboards for examining enduring philosophical questions. Philosophy Through Film provides guidance in how to watch films with an eye for their philosophical content, helping students become familiar with key topics in all of the major areas in Western philosophy, and helping them master the techniques of philosophical argumentation.
The perfect size and scope for a first course in philosophy, Philosophy Through Film assumes no prior knowledge of philosophy. It is an excellent teaching resource and learning tool, introducing students to key topics and figures in philosophy through thematic chapters, each of which is linked to one or more "focus films" that illustrate a philosophical problem or topic.
Revised and expanded, the Second Edition features a new chapter on political philosophy, an introductory chapter explaining how to watch films philosophically, an appendix with primary readings, and the addition of five new focus films. Films examined in depth include:

The Matrix
Vanilla Sky
Hilary and Jackie
Memento
I, Robot
Minority Report
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Antz
Equilibrium
The Seventh Seal
The Rapture
Leaving Las Vegas

Mary M. Litch has taught philosophy at Yale University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is currently Director of Academic Technology and Digital Media at Chapman University, where she also teaches philosophy.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Skepticism
Chapter 2: Relativism
Chapter 3: Personal Identity
Chapter 4: Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 5: Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility
Chapter 6: Ethics
Chapter 7: Political Philosophy
Chapter 8: The Problem of Evil
Chapter 9: Existentialism
Appendix
Readings from Primary Sources:

Plato, Allegory of the Cave (from The Republic)
Rene Descartes, Meditation One
George Berkeley, excerpts from A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
Immanuel Kant, excerpts from Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Thomas Kuhn, excerpts from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
John Locke, excerpts from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume, excerpts from A Treatise of Human Nature
Alan Turing, excerpts from "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
John Searle, excerpts from "Minds, Brains, and Programs"
David Hume, excerpts from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Jean-Paul Sartre, excerpts from "Existentialism is a Humanism"
Immanuel Kant, excerpts from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals
John Stuart Mill, excerpts from Utilitarianism
Thomas Hobbes, excerpts from Leviathan
John Stuart Mill, excerpts from On Liberty
Augustine, excerpts from On Free Choice of the Will
Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"