Skepticism Films Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema [Paperback]

Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinemaintroduces skepticism films as updated configurations of skepticist thought experiments which exemplify the pervasiveness of philosophical ideas in popular culture. Philipp Schmerheim defends a pluralistic film-philosophical position according to which films can be, but need not be, expressions of philosophical thought in their own right. It critically investigates the influence of ideas of skepticism on film-philosophical theories and develops a typology of skepticism films by analyzingThe Truman Show, Inception, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, The Thirteenth Floor, Moonand other contemporary skepticism films. With its focus on skepticism as one of the most significant philosophical problems,Skepticism Filmsprovides a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between film, theories of film and philosophy.

List of figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: Skepticism Films. A Certain Tendency in Contemporary Cinema
Part I: Thinking Through Cinema
2. Films as Configurations of Philosophical Thought
3. Remediating Philosophy, or: The Media of Philosophical Thought
Part II: Skepticism in Film Philosophy
4. Varieties of Philosophical Skepticism: Knowledge, Acknowledgement, and Trust
5. A Moving Image of Skepticism? Philosophy's Acknowledgement of Film
6. A Cinema for Believers. Trust, Belief, and the Expulsion from the Paradise of Childhood
Part III: Skepticism Films
7. Varieties of Skepticism Films
8. Tools for Philosophical Film Analysis
9. (Not) Knowing My World: External World Skepticism Films
10. Not Knowing My Self, or: Being One's Own Evil Deceiver
11. Coda. From Doubt to Acknowledgement, or: The Philosophical Significance of Skepticism Films revisited
Bibliography and Filmography
Index

Philipp Schmerheimis Lecturer in Children's Media Research at the University of Bremen, Germany, and Adjunctl36