Hi again. Here is the fifth podcast for the course. In this podcast I will discuss both of the essays for this coming week, as well as introducing you to our next film, Blade Runner. Before you listen, be sure to download the first reading, Alan Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", and read it along with our second reading, John Searle's "Is the Brain's Mind a Computer Program?". Links to both of these essays are provided in the course calendar. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me using the link to the right.

See you on Thursday!

Hi again. Here is the fourth podcast for the course. In this podcast I will discuss both of the essays for this coming week, as well as introducing you to our next film, I Heart Huckabees. Before you listen, be sure to download the first reading, Jean Paul Sartre's "Existentialism is a Humanism", and read it along with our second reading, Aldo Leopold's "The Land Ethic". Links to both of these essays are provided in the course calendar. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me using the link to the right.

See you on Thursday!

You may choose to write on the following if you didn't write on last week's question, and if you choose to do so, it will be due by the beginning of our next class meeting, Thursday February 9th. Your answer should be at least 350 words in length. Here is the question:

What would Sontag have thought of our class discussion of Adaptation? Do you agree with what you think she would say about our discussion? Why or why not?

Hi again. Here is the third podcast for the course. In this podcast I will discuss both of the essays for this coming week, as well as introducing you to our next film, Adaptation. Before you listen, be sure to download the first reading, Richard Rorty’s "Platonists, Positivists, and Pragmatists", and read it along with our second reading, Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation". Links to both of these essays are provided in the course calendar. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me using the link to the right.

See you on Thursday!

Hi there,

As you know, each week after we view a film I will be posting a short essay question which you can choose to write on. You must write on one (of the three that will be posted) before the first exam, and one (of the four that will be posted) before the second exam. If you choose to write on this week's question, you must turn it in when we meet again next Thursday, February 2nd. Your answers should be at least 350 words in length. Here is the question:
What is Poundstone’s answer to the question “How do you know that you’re not a brain (or, as in The Matrix, a body) in a vat?” How do you think Descartes would answer this question? Is either answer sufficient to convince you that you are not living inside a computer generated matrix right now? Why or why not?

Hi all, 
Below please find our updated course calendar. Basically I've had to lop off the last week before our midterm. (Is everything interconnected?) This means that our midterm exam will be on the same date as it has been and the calendar will not change from that point onward. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or talk to me this week.

Hi all,

Well, for the first time ever, Philosophy in the Cinema has fallen victim to inclement weather. Here's what we will do: next Thursday we'll cover what we were supposed to do today. I'll figure out what we'll need to drop by next week and post a new course calendar on the website when I figure that out. If you have any questions, email me.

Enjoy the snow!

Hi all. Just a quick post to let you know that the second podcast this week makes reference to there being two Podcast Assignments in the first podcast. This is not the case. Sorry for the confusion!

Hi again. Here is the second podcast for the course. In this podcast I will discuss both of the essays for this coming week, as well as introducing you to our next film, The Matrix. Before you listen, be sure to download the first reading, Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, specifically Meditations 1 and 2, and read it along with our second reading, from William Poundstone's Labyrinths of Reason. (Both of these books are available for check out in EvCC's library, by the way.) Links to both of these essays are provided in the course calendar, which, if you haven't already downloaded, you can get in the previous entry to this blog. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me using the link to the right.

See you on Thursday!

You can also download the podcast by control-clicking (right-clicking) on the link below and then add it to iTunes. That way you can then listen to it offline or transfer it over to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad to play at your convenience.