Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy and Cognitive Science

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 332 pages
• Published by: Cambridge University Press
• Edition: 1st Edition January 28, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0521057787
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0521057783
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
"Currie is often provocative, as when he analyzes the nature of film images and when he criticizes the theory of 'suture.'" Choice

"In this important and impressive book, Gregory Currie tackles several fundamental topics in the philosophy of film and says much of general interest about the nature of imaginationCurrie's book is a major contribution to the developing field of the philosophy of film, and also has important things to say about aesthetics and the philosophy of mind. It deserves to be widely read and admired." Berys Gaut, The Philosophical Review

Product Description
This is a book about the nature of film: about the nature of moving images, about the viewer's relation to film, and about the kinds of narrative that film is capable of presenting. It represents a very decisive break with the semiotic and psychoanalytic theories of film that have dominated discussion over the past twenty years. Professor Currie provides a general theory of pictorial narration and its interpretation in both pictorial and linguistic media, and concludes with an analysis of some ways in which film narrative and literary narrative differ.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy and Cognitive Science (Hardcover) Written in 1995, Currie's Arguments are Concise, Persuasive on the topic of, generally, what is cinema. Currie's Bibliography includes: Carroll, Noel Dennett, Daniel Eco, Umberto Lewis, David Metz, Christian Walton, Kendall In college & graduate school, I have found writings on film studies, particularly those which apply psychoanalysis & semiotics, generally stodgy & often impenetrable. Even Mulvey's seminal, infamous essay on "Visual Pleasure" is hard to understand from the standpoint of a rationalist. Currie's approach is Concise & persuasive; I think he's an analytic philosopher. He counter-argues against "film as a language," which I suppose is metaphorical at best (nevertheless, this language concept is found in many respectable film studies textbooks). His writing is accessible for college level & up; he applies findings in Cognitive Science to his arguments For the fictional film. Noel Carroll, a film studies iconoclast, embraces this book with one caveat: avant-garde films, films that are more purely visual than pictorial, are not tackled sufficiently here. Here's a quick glimpse at the book, offered by University of Houston's Cognitive Science website. It is highly possible to shape an advanced undergraduate course on the philosophy of film (mixed in with Philosophy of the Mind) with this book using such films as: Antonioni's "Blow-Up" Linklater's "Before Sunset" Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" Soderbergh's "The Limey" Haneke's "Cache" Bier's "Brothers" Hitchcock's "Spellbound" Currie's next book "Arts & Minds" was released in January 2005.