The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan
As a director, writer, and producer, Christopher Nolan has substantially impacted contemporary cinema through avant garde films, such as Following and Memento, and his contribution to wider pop culture with his Dark Knight trilogy. His latest film, Interstellar, delivered the same visual qualities and complex, thought-provoking plotlines his audience anticipates. The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan collects sixteen essays, written by professional philosophers and film theorists, discussing themes such as self-identity and self-destruction, moral choice and moral doubt, the nature of truth and its value, whether we can trust our perceptions of what’s “real,” the political psychology of heroes and villains, and what it means to be a “viewer” of Nolan’s films. Whether his protagonists are squashing themselves like a bug, struggling to create an identity and moral purpose for themselves, suffering from their own duplicitous plots, donning a mask that both strikes fear and reveals their true nature, or having to weigh the lives of those they love against the greater good, there are no simple solutions to the questions Nolan’s films provoke; exploring these questions yields its own reward.
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The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan
As a director, writer, and producer, Christopher Nolan has substantially impacted contemporary cinema through avant garde films, such as Following and Memento, and his contribution to wider pop culture with his Dark Knight trilogy. His latest film, Interstellar, delivered the same visual qualities and complex, thought-provoking plotlines his audience anticipates. The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan collects sixteen essays, written by professional philosophers and film theorists, discussing themes such as self-identity and self-destruction, moral choice and moral doubt, the nature of truth and its value, whether we can trust our perceptions of what’s “real,” the political psychology of heroes and villains, and what it means to be a “viewer” of Nolan’s films. Whether his protagonists are squashing themselves like a bug, struggling to create an identity and moral purpose for themselves, suffering from their own duplicitous plots, donning a mask that both strikes fear and reveals their true nature, or having to weigh the lives of those they love against the greater good, there are no simple solutions to the questions Nolan’s films provoke; exploring these questions yields its own reward.
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Overview

As a director, writer, and producer, Christopher Nolan has substantially impacted contemporary cinema through avant garde films, such as Following and Memento, and his contribution to wider pop culture with his Dark Knight trilogy. His latest film, Interstellar, delivered the same visual qualities and complex, thought-provoking plotlines his audience anticipates. The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan collects sixteen essays, written by professional philosophers and film theorists, discussing themes such as self-identity and self-destruction, moral choice and moral doubt, the nature of truth and its value, whether we can trust our perceptions of what’s “real,” the political psychology of heroes and villains, and what it means to be a “viewer” of Nolan’s films. Whether his protagonists are squashing themselves like a bug, struggling to create an identity and moral purpose for themselves, suffering from their own duplicitous plots, donning a mask that both strikes fear and reveals their true nature, or having to weigh the lives of those they love against the greater good, there are no simple solutions to the questions Nolan’s films provoke; exploring these questions yields its own reward.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781498513531
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication date: 06/20/2017
Series: Philosophy of Popular Culture
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 242
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Jason T. Eberl is Semler Endowed Chair for Medical Ethics and professor of philosophy at Marian University.

George A. Dunn lectures in philosophy and religion at the University of Indianapolis and the Ningbo Institute of Technology in Zhejiang Province.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Moral Philosophy

2. Jason T. Eberl—“So You Can Be My ‘John G.’”: Moral Culpability in Memento
Insomnia and the Struggle for Purity of Heart
Interstellar
Part 2: Politics and Culture
The Dark Knight and the Conservative Critique of Political Liberalism
The Prestige

8. Deborah Knight & George McKnight—“Are You Watching Closely?” Narrative Comprehension in Nolan’s Early Films
Part 3: Epistemology and Metaphysics

10. Karen D. Hoffman—False Tattoos and Failed Totems: Kierkegaard and Subjective Truth in Memento and Inception
Inception and Perception: What Should A Dream Thief Believe?
Inception and Nozick’s “Experience Machine”
Part 4: Time and Selfhood

14. David LaRocca—“Memory Man”: The Constitution of Personal Identity in Memento
Following: Subjectivity and Contemporary Film Spectatorship
Interstellar
Bibliography
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