Film as Ethical Philosophy and the Question of Philosophical Arguments in Film: A Reading of The Tree of Life

Film and Philosophy 18:164-183 (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Responds to the seminal claim of Bruce Russell that films cannot present philosophical arguments. Provides a reading of The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011) in order to illustrate how this film presents an environmental ethics argument. Some reference to the environmental philosophy of Holmes Rolston III as well as Martin Heidegger.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.5840/filmphil20141811

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,990

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Film as Heideggerian Art? A Reassessment of Heidegger, Film, and his Connection to Terrence Malick.Shawn Loht - 2013 - Film and Philosophy 17:113-36.
Jonathan Beever and Vernon W. Cisney , The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”. Reviewed by. [REVIEW]Shawn Loht - 2019 - Philosophy in Review 39 (1):1-3.
Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film.Steven Rybin - 2011 - Lexington Books.
Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film.Steven Rybin - 2011 - Lexington Books.
Not One Power, But Two : Dark Grounds and Twilit Paradises in Malick.Jussi Backman - 2023 - In Steven Delay (ed.), Life Above the Clouds: Philosophy in the Films of Terrence Malick. State University of New York Press.
The Relevance of Heidegger’s Conception of Philosophy to the Film-as-Philosophy Debate.Shawn Loht - 2016 - Film and Philosophy 19:34-53.
A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth by Holmes Rolston, III.Melissa Clarke - 2014 - Environmental Ethics 36 (2):255-256.
Anthropocentric Indirect Arguments: Return of the Plastic-tree Zombies.Eric Katz - 2014 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 17 (3):264-266.
Rethinking Animal Ethics in Appropriate Context: How Rolston's Work Can Help.Clare Palmer - 2006 - In Christopher J. Preston & Wayne Ouderkirk (eds.), Nature, Value Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III. Springer. pp. 183-200.
A Mud Doctor Checking Out the Earth Underneath: Ruminations on Malick’s Days of Heaven and Loht’s Phenomenology of Film.Jason M. Wirth - 2024 - Film-Philosophy 28 (1):98-112.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-09-05

Downloads
27 (#577,964)

6 months
9 (#436,631)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Shawn Loht
Delgado Community College

Citations of this work

Phenomenological Preconditions of the Concept of Film-as-Philosophy.Shawn Loht - 2015 - Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology 2 (2):171-185.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references