I liked the psychoanalytic essay the best. It was all a dream, until Cobb DiCaprio opens his eyes in the plane at the end of the film. Jun 30, Emily Liu rated it it was amazing Shelves: Captivating from beginning to end. The last few pages especially, it brought up ideas that I know I would have never ever considered. Jul 03, Tim rated it really liked it. What is reality and how do you know? Evelyn rated it liked it Sep 14, Ben rated it it was ok Sep 25, Rahul Bhole marked it as to-read Mar 04, Obstinator rated it liked it Mar 01, Jacie Butler rated it it was amazing Jan 10, Amrish rated it it was amazing Aug 06, Fouad Fouad rated it it was amazing Jul 11, Mark Goewey rated it it was amazing May 17, Amy rated it it was amazing Nov 18, Rhianna rated it really liked it May 31, Graham rated it really liked it May 16, Giorgi Tkeshelashvili rated it really liked it Jul 19, Nate Claiborne rated it it was ok Jul 18, Dexter Warren rated it really liked it Feb 06, Lu rated it it was amazing Feb 26, Kiara rated it it was amazing Jun 10, Divya rated it did not like it Oct 30, Mad Men and Philosophy William Irwin.
House and Philosophy Henry Jacoby.
Watchmen and Philosophy William Irwin. Twilight and Philosophy William Irwin.
Final Fantasy and Philosophy William Irwin. Inception and Philosophy William Irwin. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy Jason T. The Hobbit and Philosophy Gregory Bassham. Veronica Mars and Philosophy William Irwin.
True Blood and Philosophy William Irwin. Family Guy and Philosophy J. Back cover copy Did the top fall?
Was the whole movie just a dream? Is it possible for us to know what is truly real? When should we take our own leap of faith? In the complex world of Christopher Nolan's four-time Academy Award-winning metaphysical heist film, Inception, Dom Cobb has the ability to infiltrate people's dreams to steal and even alter their belief s and thoughts. Lurking behind these acts of extraction and inception are profound moral and philosophical issues.
From Plato to Aristotle, from Descartes to Hume, Inception and Philosophy draws from the greatest philosophical minds to shed new light on the movie's key questions and captivating themes. Too far in one direction and you've basically published an academic journal; too far in the other direction you've done nothing but confirm the stereotype of philosophers as nerdy eggheads with ultimately vacuous ideas. At the risk of offending die-hard Zepp fans, I'd argue that Inception is better suited to be the subject of a philosophy book than any of the above.
At the risk of offending the other half of those on the Internet, I'd also argue that Inception isn't quite weighty enough to sustain a full 21 metaphysical essays, and this is where the book goes wrong, ultimately proving to be a repetitive slog with a few interesting grains buried deep within. It doesn't help that the book spends a lot of time patting fans of Inception on the back for daring to love such a deep film.
Don't get me wrong; I thought Inception was a great movie, and extremely smart for a summer blockbuster.
But Inception and Philosophy piles on the hyerbole so high It's even "more than one of the greatest movies of all time Nearly every essay begins with a laudatory introduction reminding the reader how awesome Inception was -- the phrase "existential heist movie" is glowingly thrown around by multiple authors. Reading Inception and Philosophy is less like attending an academic conference and more like stumbling into a science-fiction message board populated by freshman philosophy major wannabes with one semester and 50 pages of Nietzsche under their belts.
Look how smart the movie is! Look how deep its themes are! Instead of letting the film stand on its own, the authors constantly remind you how smart you are for enjoying Inception. Neither does it help that the book is awkwardly edited. In addition to the increasingly tiresome kudos, nearly every essay includes a synopsis of the film.
In Chapter 16 Indalecio Garcia looks at some of the views of timelessness and eternity which have fed into Inception , while in Chapter 9 Thomas Kapper contemplates the maze of myth with the help of the original cluegiver--Ariadne, of course. At the risk of offending the other half of those on the Internet, I'd also argue that Inception isn't quite weighty enough to sustain a full 21 metaphysical essays, and this is where the book goes wrong, ultimately proving to be a repetitive slog with a few interesting grains buried deep within. Ideas to Die For. Mad Men and Philosophy William Irwin. Publisher Synopsis "The authors of Inception and Philosophy: Chi ama i libri sceglie Kobo e inMondadori.
This might have been nice to have as an introduction to the entire volume, but it feels strange reading a summary of the film for the twelfth time. Pages and pages are wasted explaining the movie's four dream layers ad nauseam , when a simple reminder at the beginning of the book might have sufficed.
For essays like these to work, they either have to be of high enough academic caliber to provoke interesting thoughts, or have entertaining enough writing that one can ignore what the work lacks in erudition. Unfortunately, most of the essays in Inception and Philosophy are neither sufficiently intellectual nor particularly well-written. The majority of them read like the worst kind of pop philosophy, punctuated by meaningless aphorisms taken out of context without a sustained argument or idea to tie everything together.
When I awaken, the dream ends.
But am I just entering another dream in another place? If life is but a dream as the "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" song says it is , maybe death is waking up elsewhere. Which is more real, the here or the elsewhere? Maybe then we wake up from the elsewhere too. Meaningless reference to an intellecutal quotation, presented without context? Meandering sentences that continuously make bizarre metaphysical assertions without any corresponding arguments to back them up?