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* * Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] Or visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html For technical help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon * Film-Philosophy online: http://www.film-philosophy.com Contact: [log in to unmask] **Since _Inception_ is available on DVD since yesterday, I annouce this 2nd Call for Abstracts. Thank you.
The Open Court “Popular Culture and Philosophy” Series launches a
Call for Abstracts:
Inception and Philosophy
Philosophy is… a spinning top
Edited by Thorsten Botz-Bornstein
Inception has been dubbed the “existential heist film” of the year. The spontaneous association of the film with philosophical dream theories as well as with cognitive models based on neuroscience suggests that Inception is underpinned by deep philosophical urges. This is mainly due to
· The fact that at no point reality seems to be clearly established in the film (the whole film might be a dream).
· The “dream in a dream in a dream” model makes a statement about the structure of the subconscious
· The notion, at the heart of the movie, that an idea is the most resilient and powerful parasite, seems to come right out of meme theory and has, above that, been mentioned by Kant, Hegel, Deleuze, and many others.
Chapters can address the following themes (examples):
Theories of Dreaming
· Mindscreen theories revisited (who is dreaming?)
· The world of Inception as the Brave New World
· Are collective dreams possible?
· How many layers of identity do people have?
· The “Dream in a Dream” metaphor in Buddhism/Taoism
· Knowing other minds, influencing others’ beliefs, values, and choices
· Are embedded dreams psychologically possible?
· The phenomenology of dreams as outlined in Inception
· What defines the aesthetics of dreams in Inception?
· The perception of time in Inception
· Are the characters of Inception right that logical inconsistencies encourage us to wake up from a dream?
· Do dreams think? Dreams are not mental states but thinking systems
Cognitive Science, Neuroscience
· Does reasoning occur more quickly below the level of consciousness?
· Is it neurobiologically and psychologically possible to enter each others' dreams?
· Are there any sedatives that enhance REM sleep, as suggested by Inception?
· What does it mean to get stuck at the deepest level of the unconscious without having any conscious experiences and without the possibility of returning? Is that equivalent to being in a vegetative state? Or, is some other, perhaps as yet unknown, dimension of the mind involved?
· How do ideas get implanted in people's minds neuropsychologically or philosophically? Is inception possible?
· The philosophy of ideas: Within the framework of the movie, did the team in fact succeed in "implanting" an idea?
· Some philosophers have suggested that within the Matrix, language really does succeed in making reference. "Chair", for example, refers to the virtual chairs. Does something similar hold for the dream worlds of Inception?
· In Inception there is just one real world. But what makes this world more real than dream worlds? After all, the microphysical structure of this world does not make itself apparent in our phenomenology.
Ethics
· The ethics of invading others’ minds, and dreams; the ethical import of “adding” ideas rather than stealing them
· The philosophy of guilt in relation to Inception
Other themes
· The philosophy of emotions (what is so scary about being in a dream world?)
· Dennett has argued that our dreams are confabulations we make at the moment of waking up. Would that undermine the premise of the movie? Does the movie offer an argument against Dennett?
· Can First Life problems be solved in Second Life?
· Are we simultaneously living in different realities? (think of globalization, virtual reality…)
· Pragmatism: if an idea works, then it’s true. If we believe it’s real, then it’s real
· Should we trust our senses or our ideas?
· The ultimate rejection of Descartes: The self is not our center
· Freud rehabilitated: The truth about the self is in the subconscious
· Can problems be solved in dreams?
· Can skepticism get us out of these dreams?
· How is architectural space conceived in Inception? Is there an architecture of the mind?
· Inception and organic intelligence
· Is God a projection?
· Gendered dreams – beyond typical male dreams with fights and chases?
· Space in dreams and cinema
· Depiction as a mental faculty
· Dreams and memory as the machine of intuition.
Deadline for abstracts (200-500 words plus short bio-note): Nov. 15 2010. Deadline for papers: April 15 2011. Send to T. Botz-Bornstein [log in to unmask]
The Open Court “Popular Culture and Philosophy” Series: http://www.opencourtbooks. com/categories/pcp.htm