Philosophy

005 Midterm Study Guide Plato 1. Explain in your own words Platos theory of the forms. 2. Explain how the allegory of the cave is meant to illustrate the theory of the forms and the problem of knowledge. 3. How does Platos theory of the forms (and the relationship between reality and the senses) cause him to take a negative view of art? 4. Part of Plato's distrust of art comes from his view that a physical object (such as a flower) is one step removed from the form or universal (such "Flower- ness"). In turn, a painting of a flower is two steps removed from the form - i.e., it is a copy of a copy or a representation of a representation. Where in the Ion does Plato to present this view? 5. Ion is a rhapsode, or someone who presents the work of such poets as Homer. According to Socrates in the dialogue, what are the advantages of being a rhapsode? What, according to Socrates, are the disadvantages? On what bases does Socrates seem to be making these judgments? 6. Socrates criticizes Ion for being able to speak with seeming knowledge about Homer, but not about any other poets. Find the passages where Socrates alleges this defect in Ion's understanding. What seems to be the basis for Socrates' criticism? Is there something defective about all of Ion's knowledge, including his seeming knowledge about Homer? What is defective about this knowledge? 7. Socrates claims that rhapsodes and poets are "inspired" and "impelled" to perform and create their work. Note the usage of these terms and their variants throughout paragraphs 67 and 68. What does Socrates seem to mean by "inspiration" in this context? Why does he seem to think such "inspiration" is not admirable? Do you agree with Socrates that "inspiration" is inferior to other human activities? 8. Socrates and Ion seem to agree that rhapsodes, poets, and their audiences are not in their "right minds." (See #74ff) What do they seem to mean by this? For Socrates, is this an indication of what's wrong with the arts? Do you agree that the arts are "emotional" or "irrational"? What other language does Socrates use to convey this idea? Do you agree with Socrates that this is a defect of the arts? 9. Throughout the dialogue, Socrates speaks of "the art of ____" -- the pilot, the physician, the carpenter, the fisherman, the charioteer, etc. What does he seem to mean by "art" in this usage? How is it different from the activities of the rhapsode, musician, and the poet? 10. Socrates sketches a hierarchy of knowledge in which the knowledge of the rhapsode or the poet is always inferior to the knowledge of other practitioners. What is the basis for his argument? Do you agree that the knowledge of the artist is always inferior? How would you answer Socrates' argument?

 Film Theories
11. In what way can the goals of photography be said to follow long standing artistic desires in western culture? Consider the development of perspective and mechanical reproduction. How does the discovery of subjectivity relate to these developments? (This could serve as a short essay question). 12. Explain how in the twentieth century the goals of painting split from those of photography. Bazin makes much of this divergence but other critics are skeptical. Explain the nature of the debate. (This could serve as a long essay question.) 13. In what sense, according to Stanley Cavell in The World Viewed , did photography overcome the subjectivism of painting?

14. Why does Bazin think that photography is the most important development in the history of the plastic arts? [Bazin, 16] 15. How do the film theorists that we have read/discussed conceive of the relationship between film and reality? Death in Venice
16.How does Mann's use of Greek mythology illuminate Aschenbach's story? 17. What, in your opinion, is the message Mann is conveying in Death in Venice?

18. Explain the use of foreshadowing in the Novella. 19. What unusual camera technique does Visconti employ in the film version and why does he do so? 20. Discuss and evaluate the major differences between the film and the novella from the point of view of translating the literary work into film. Irving Singer 21. Discuss the differences, in particular the different kinds of reality, in the aesthetic experience of a film as opposed to that of a play. 22. Explain the relationship between formalist theory and the psychology of film and how formalism can be seen to have developed out of nineteenth century idealist philosophy. 23. What is objective idealism? Explain. 24. In what ways is The Purple Rose of Cairo (the Woody Allen film) a realistic film? In what ways is it a fantasy? In what way is The Purple Rose of Cairo (the black and white film) a realistic film? In what ways is it a fantasy? 25. Singer notes that some philosophers have claimed that artifacts become aesthetic objects when they are self-referential in the sense that they tell us about the nature of the medium in which they occur. Explain this claim in your own words and illustrate it with examples. How might this principle provide us with a principle of aesthetic/artistic evaluation? (That is, how

might we use this principle to distinguish art/good art from non-art/bad art?) 26. Explain how art can be seen as an attempt to achieve a victory over time/death. How does this relate to the issue of reality in art? (Note that on a Platonic conception, the real is the unchanging whereas the unreal or less real is that which comes into being and passes away.) Explain Singers critique of this view. 27. In what ways is film a play of presence and absence? 28. Describe cinematic vs. literary seeing. Compare and contrast them. In general focus on explaining things clearly and upon arguments. In addition to answering the above-questions, you should probably think about other issues concerning philosophy, art, and film that we have discussed in class. The exam will be open-book and open note, but you may not use a computer or other sort of smart device.