Index for PERS-2199

Persons, Fate, and Freedom in Film

Dr. Ari Santas

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Valdosta State University

 

Course Syllabus PERS-2199 Spring 2013

 

Course Schedule 2199 Schedule S13

 

Final Project Options

These are worth 25% of course grade (see Syllabus for details)

Essay Option (5-6 page paper)

Essay Assignment

Film Option (3-5 minute film)

Short Film Assignment

 

Student Evaluations Online

Instructions for Online Student Evaluations

 

Writing Assignments

 

See my Reading and Writing Guidelines

 

Short Paper Assignment (Short Papers are worth 50 % of course grade)

Student Sample Paper #1 (a nice example of how to do a Unit I paper)

Student Sample Paper #2 (a nice example of Unit II paper)

 

 

 

Study Questions for Films (for discussion and paper writing)

 

American Beauty

Eternal Sunshine

Miss Congeniality

BBC Guide--Socrates

I Huckabees

Network

BBC Guide--Seneca

Impostor

Next

BBC Guide--Nietzsche

Inception

Paycheck

Blade Runner

Little Miss Sunshine

Pleasantville

Dark City

Matrix

Truman Show

Deja Vu

Memento

What the Bleep?

Minority Report

 

 

 

 

 

Online Reading and Video Materials (for substantive help on your papers and general edificationJ)

 

General Thematic Notes

Santas Notes on Theories of Self

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

Santas Notes on Identity, Fate and Choice

 

For Ancient Greeks

Sophocles (497/6-406/5 BCE)

Oedipus Rex (a translation and adaptation by Dr. Constantine Santas)

Plato (423-347 BC)

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

 

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Nicomachean Ethics (see notes on Aristotle and the Good Life)

Reading

Notes

Text of Book III (On Choice)

Santas Notes Nic. Ethics, Book III

Text of Book VII (On Akrasia)

Santas Notes Nic. Ethics, Book VII

For Stoicism (A Good Life is one of Reason and Self-Control: Living in Accord with Nature)

Reading

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Stoicism

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) entry on Stoicism

IEP entry on Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Seneca (4 BC- AD 65)

Video

BBC Video on Seneca on Anger Part I; Part II; Part III

 

For Moderns

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Stanford Article on Descartes

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) entry on Descartes

YouTube Video on Philosophy and the Matrix--Descartes

Meditations on First Philosophy (complete text from Early Modern Texts)

See esp. Meditation IV (on how to remove error and find truth through free will)

See Santas Notes on Meditations, IV

 

John Locke (1632-1704)

Works by John Locke at Project Gutenberg

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Locke

Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Locke

Selections from Identity and Memory from John Perry Reader

Locke's Memory Theory

Critiques of Memory Theory

Text of "Liberty of the Will" Book II, Chapter xxi (Power), sections 5-27 (from Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

 

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Selection from Critique of Pure Reason: Antinomies (see esp. Third Antinomy, pp. 219-22)

Text of Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

See Santas Notes on Kant's Noumenal Self

 

Baruch Spinoza (1632-77)

Works by Spinoza at Project Gutenberg

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Spinoza

Internet Encyclopedia entry on Spinoza

Text of Ethics (see Parts IV & V-- beware: a challenging read!)

 

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Reading

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Nietzsche (a general overview of Nietzsche’s Philosophy)

Wiki Article on Nietzsche’s Philosophy (a philosophy of overcoming)

Video

BBC Video on Nietzsche on Hardship Part I; Part II; Part III

 

William James (1842-1910)

Text of Dilemma of Determinism (from the view of a 19th century psychologist)

 

G.H. Mead (1863-1931)

Mind, Self, and Society (full text online)

Santas Summary of MSS

The Present as the Locus of Reality (Mead's essay is a philosophy of time)

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Article on Mead and Temporality

Stanford Article on Mead, Section 5. Sociality, Emergence, and The Philosophy of the Present

 

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-80)

Text of Existentialism and Humanism (a philosophy of radical freedom and choice)

 

Philip K. Dick (1928-82) (many of the feature films we view are based on his stories)

Works by Philip K. Dick at Project Gutenberg

Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick

Wikipedia Entry on The Golden Man (basis for the feature film Next)

Impostor (text of short story the 2001 film of the same name film is based on)

Minority Report (text of short story the 2002 film of the same name film is based on)

 

Michael Gazzaniga, Who's in Charge? (a contemporary brain scientist discusses freedom)

Chapter 3 (discussion of the “Interpreter” feature of the brain)

Chapter 4 (discussion of the implications for free will)

 

Ari Santas,

Willpower (article on freedom as a practice)