Blade Runner [Paperback]

Ridley Scotts Blade Runneris widely regarded as a masterpiece of modern cinema and is regularly ranked as one of the great films of all time. Set in a dystopian future where the line between human beings and replicants is blurred, the film raises a host of philosophical questions about what it is to be human, the possibility of moral agency and freedom in created life forms, and the capacity of cinema to make a genuine contribution to our engagement with these kinds of questions.

This volume of specially commissioned chapters systematically explores and addresses these issues from a philosophical point of view. Beginning with a helpful introduction, the seven chapters examine the following questions:

• How is the theme of death explored in Blade Runnerand with what implications for our understanding of the human condition?
• What can we learn about the relationship between emotion and reason from the depiction of the replicants in Blade Runner?
• How are memory, empathy, and moral agency related in Blade Runner?
• How does the style and mood of Blade Runnerbear upon its thematic and philosophical significance?
• Is Blade Runnera meditation on the nature of film itself?

Including a brief biography of the director and a detailed list of references to other writings on the film, Blade Runneris essential reading for students  indeed anyone - interested in philosophy and film studies.

Contributors: Colin Allen, Peter Atterton, Amy Coplan, David Davies, Berys Gaut, Stephen Mulhall, C. D. C. Reeve.

1. Introduction Amy Coplanand David Davies  2. Elegy in LA: Blade Runner, empathy,lã'