Moral Issues and Movies: An Introduction to Ethical Theories and Issues through the Lens of Film
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2021
Pages: 282
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2021
Pages: 282
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Moral Issues and Movies is authoritative:
- Dr. Joseph Forte’s expertise on the content of the book derives from:
- His scholarship on ancient virtue ethics, as well as
- His expertise teaching ethical theories and issues at the university level since 2008
- Additionally, subject-matter experts reviewed and/or contributed to every chapter.
Moral Issues and Movies is designed to foster undergraduate student engagement and understanding by:
- Using recent mainstream films to illuminate philosophical concepts and texts
- Employing annotations and commentary to explain possibly confusing aspects of excerpts from classical philosophy texts, curated for each chapter
- Including links to vetted internet sources to provide context and avenues for further learning
- Providing a glossary of terminology in each chapter
- Breaking up chapters into small sections interspersed with carefully-selected images, including famous works of art
- Including questions for consideration and discussion throughout each chapter
- Providing further contextual background for the topics, thinkers, time periods, and texts of each chapter with an appendix, which includes not only text, but videos co-created by the author and curated from the web.
- Including an Instructor’s Supplement to serve as pedagogical resource, with extensive suggestions about how to use the textbook effectively
Moral Issues and Movies could serve as a standalone textbook or supplement for courses including but not limited to:
- Introduction to Ethics
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Bioethics
- Philosophy of Death and Dying
- Modern Philosophy
- Philosophy Through Film
- Theories of Ethics
- Politics and Ethics
- Ancient Philosophy
- Contemporary Ethics
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I.1 Why the “Lens of Film”?
I.2 Resources in This Book
I.3 How to Use This Book
I.4 Intended Learning Outcomes
Unit 1: Ethical Theories
Chapter 1: Plato’s Virtue Ethics through Film
Prerequisite film viewing: The Matrix (1999);
Recommended film viewing for section 1.7: Avatar (2009)
Prefatory Note
1.1 Introduction: What is Philosophy? What is Ethics?
1.2 Historical Context: Ancient Greece, Socrates, and Plato
1.3 Metaphysics, Morals, and The Matrix
1.4 Introduction to Plato’s Cave
1.5 Annotated Excerpts from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
1.6 Plato’s Cave in Relation to The Matrix
1.7 James Cameron’s Avatar
1.8 Resources for Further Study
1.8.1 Links to Free Versions of Plato’s Republic
1.8.2 Recommended Print Translations of the Republic
Chapter 2: Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics through Film
Prerequisite film viewing: Forrest Gump (1994);
For section 2.5 on: The Irishman (2019)
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Virtuous Life of Forrest Gump
2.3 Annotated Excerpts from Nicomachean Ethics
2.3.1 An Account of Happiness: Book One, Chapters Seven and Ten
2.3.2 An Account of Virtue General, Including Remarks about Temperance and Courage
2.3.3 Generosity; Excerpts from Nicomachean Ethics Book Four, Chapter One
2.3.4 Friendship: Excerpts from Nicomachean Ethics Book Eight, Chapters One, Two, and Three
2.4 Nicomachean Ethics and Forrest Gump
2.5 The Vicious Life of Frank Sheeran in Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman (2019)
2.6 Vice According to Aristotle
2.6.1 A Summary of Nicomachean Ethics Book Seven, Chapters Seven, Eight, Nine, and Fourteen: Vice and Related Conditions
2.6.2 A Summary of Nicomachean Ethics Book Eight, Chapters One, Four, Eight, and Thirteen; Book Nine, Chapters Two, Three, and Four: Vice and Friendship
2.7 Aristotle and The Irishman
2.8 Resources for Further Study
2.8.1 Links to Free Online English Translations of Nicomachean Ethics
2.8.2 Recommended Print Translations of Nicomachean Ethics
Chapter 3: Virtue Ethics and Natural Law
Recommended viewing: The Good Place,
“Jeremy Bearimy” (season 3, episode 4, aired 2018)
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Natural Law
3.2.1 Overview of the Development of Natural Law
3.2.2 The Stoic Origins of Natural Law
3.2.3 Introduction to Aquinas on Natural Law
3.3 Annotated Excerpts from Aquinas on Natural Law (Drawn from Summa Theologica I-II: Question 91, Article Two and Question 94, Article Two)
3.4 The Modern Period
3.5 Locke and Natural Law
3.6 Resources for Further Study
3.6.1 Freely Available Online Sources
3.6.2 Recommended Print Translations of Stobaeus, and Aquinas, Respectively
Chapter 4: Deontological Ethics through the Lens of The Good Place
4.1 Introduction to Non-Consequentialism
4.2 The Good Place and Non-Consequentialism
4.3 Introduction to Kantian Ethics
4.4 Excerpts from Foundation for the Metaphysic of Morals
4.5 The Good Place and Non-Consequentialism Continued
4.6 Resources for Further Study
4.6.1 Freely Available Online Sources
4.6.2 Recommended Print Translations of Kant
Chapter 5: Utilitarianism and The Good Place
Recommended viewing: The Good Place, “The Trolley Problem,” (season 2, episode 5, aired 2017)
5.1 The Good Place and “The Trolley Problem”
5.2 Introduction to Utilitarianism
5.3 Annotated Excerpts from Mill’s Utilitarianism
5.4 The Trolley Problem, Natural Law, Locke, Kant, and Utilitarianism
5.4.1 Philippa Foot and Double Effect
5.4.2 Natural Law and Foot’s Scenarios
5.4.3 Deontological Ethics, the Trolley, and the Devious Doctors
5.4.4 Utilitarianism, the Tram, and the Medical Mutilators
5.4.5 Further Thoughts About Utilitarianism and The Good Place
5.5 Resources for Further Study
5.5.1 Freely Available Online Sources
5.5.2 Books
Unit 2: Bioethics
Chapter 6: Abortion
Recommended Film Viewing: Juno (2007)
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Background Information
6.2.1 The Stages of Fetal Development
6.2.2 Methods for Abortion: Brief Overview
6.2.3 Legal History
6.2.4 Abortion Statistics in the US
6.2.4.1 2016 Data on Abortion from the CDC
6.2.4.2 Reasons Given for Having an Abortion
6.2.4.3 Views on Abortion According to Gallup
6.3 Legality and Morality
6.4 Juno, Thomson, and Marquis on the Morality of Abortion
6.4.1 Summary of the Film’s Treatment of Abortion
6.4.2 Judith Thomson
6.4.3 Don Marquis
6.4.4 Conclusions about Juno, Thomson, and Marquis
6.4.5 Possible Problems with Juno’s Treatment of Abortion
6.5 Ethical Theory and Abortion
6.5.1 Natural Law
6.5.2 Kantian Ethics (Deontology)
6.5.3 Utilitarianism
6.6 Finding Common Ground: Lisa Cahill
6.7 Philosophical Doubts about the Politics of Abortion
6.8 Resources for Further Learning
6.8.1 Politically Neutral Support for Women Who Have Had Abortions
6.8.2 On Public Opinion about Abortion
6.8.3 On Contraception
6.8.4 On Adoption
6.8.5 Forum for Philosophical Arguments for and against Abortion
6.8.6 A Philosophy Podcast Arguing “Dispassionately” about Abortion
Chapter 7: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
Recommended viewing: The Elephant Man (1980), Million Dollar Baby (2004), The Walking Dead, Season Two (2011), Breaking Bad (2009, Season Two, Episodes Twelve and Thirteen)
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Ancient Perspectives on Death
7.2.1 Epicurus
7.2.2 Seneca
7.2.3 Epictetus
7.3 Assisted Suicide: Overview
7.4 Death with Dignity: Velleman and The Elephant Man
7.5 Velleman: It’s Worse to Have the Legal Option for Assisted Death
7.6 Euthanasia
7.6.1 Overview
7.6.2 Passive Voluntary Euthanasia
7.6.3 Passive Non-Voluntary Euthanasia
7.6.4 Rachels on Passive versus Active Euthanasia
7.6.5 Active Voluntary Euthanasia
7.6.5.1 The Walking Dead and Million Dollar Baby
7.6.6 Non-Voluntary and Involuntary Euthanasia; Breaking Bad and COVID-19
7.7 Resources for Further Investigation and Learning
7.7.1 Articles about Euthanasia in Relation to the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic
7.7.2 Statistics on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
7.7.3 Articles on Million Dollar Baby and Euthanasia
7.7.4 Books Related to The Elephant Man
7.7.5 Resources on Human Dignity
Chapter 8: Environmental Ethics: Dominion and Harmony
Co-Authored with Mark Sentesy
Recommended Viewing: An Inconvenient Truth (2006), An Inconvenient Sequel (2017), Cooked: Survival by Zip Code (2018), Cowspiracy (2014), Years of Living Dangerously (2014), Avatar (2009)
8.1 Introduction
8.2 A Brief History of Dominion: Man’s Proper Relationship with the Natural World According to the Bible and Enlightenment Thinkers
8.2.1 The Bible: Genesis Book One, Chapter One
8.2.2 Francis Bacon, New Organon
8.2.3 Descartes’s Discourse on Method
8.2.4 Locke’s Theory of Property: Annotated Excerpts from the Second Treatise of Government
8.3 Using the Energies of Nature
8.3.1 An Inconvenient Truth
8.3.2 An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
8.3.3 Further Explanation of the Causes and Effects of Greenhouse Gas Emission
8.3.4 The Effects of Fossil Fuel Emissions on Infectious Disease
8.3.5 The Social Cost of Carbon
8.3.6 Climate Justice: Effects on Vulnerable Populations
8.3.7 The Effects of Climate Change on Shortages in Food and Water, and Resulting Conflict
8.4 Solutions to the Threat of Climate Change
8.4.1 High-Impact Solutions That Address Proximate Causes
8.4.1.1 Cowspiracy and Veganism
8.4.1.2 Renewable Energy
8.4.2 Some Medium- and Low-Impact Solutions That Address Proximate Causes
8.4.2.1 Removing Greenhouse Gases from the Atmosphere
8.4.2.2 Reducing or Eliminating “Fast Fashion”
8.4.2.3 Reduce or Eliminate the Use of Palm Oil and Years of Living Dangerously
8.4.2.4 Embracing Minimalism
8.4.3 Solutions That Address the Ultimate Cause: Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” and James Cameron’s Avatar
8.4.3.1 Excerpts from “The Land Ethic”
8.4.3.2 Avatar and “The Land Ethic”
Chapter 9: Animal Ethics
Co-Authored with Lucille Thibodeau
Recommended viewing: Contagion (2011), Food, Inc. (2008), Cowspiracy (2014)
Preface
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Nonanthropocentric Arguments about Nonhuman Animals’ Rights
9.2.1 Animals Do Not Have a Moral Status: Descartes and Kant
9.2.2 Nonhuman Animals Have a Moral Status and Are Deserving of Respect: Bentham and Others
9.2.3 Implications of Nonanthropocentric Arguments about Animal Rights: Factory Farming in the United States and Food, Inc.
9.2.3.1 What Is Factory Farming?
9.2.3.2 The Treatment of Factory-Raised Chickens
9.2.3.3 Pigs
9.2.3.4 Factory Farm Animals in Relation to Pets (Companion Animals): Legal Differences
9.2.3.5 Cows
9.3 Anthropocentric Arguments about the Treatment of Nonhuman Animals
9.3.1 Cows and Climate Change: Cowspiracy
9.3.2 Humans’ Treatment of Animals and the Threat of Infectious Disease
9.3.2.1 Cows and E. Coli According to Food, Inc.
9.3.2.2 Contagion (2011) and the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic
9.3.2.3 How and Why Human Treatment of Nonhuman Animals Causes Infectious Disease and Pandemics
9.3.2.3.1 Deforestation
9.3.2.3.2 Factory Farming
9.3.2.3.3 The Wildlife Trade and Wet Markets
9.3.2.3.4 Other Factors Decreasing Biodiversity
9.4 Resources for Further Learning
9.4.1 The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
9.4.2 Eating Animals (2017)
9.4.3 Articles and Book Chapters
9.4.4 Books
Unit 3: Ethics and Politics
Chapter 10: Dangerous Ideologies
Prerequisite viewing: Schindler’s List (1993)
10.1 Overview
10.2 Historical Context
10.2.1 The Phenomenology and World War II on Twentieth-Century Thought
10.2.2 Emmanuel Levinas
10.2.3 Hannah Arendt
10.3 Schindler’s List Overview
10.4 Annotated Excerpts from Levinas’s “Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism”
10.4.1 The Text: Excerpts from Levinas’s Prefatory Note
10.4.2 Excerpts from Part One of Levinas’s Essay
10.4.3 An Excerpt from Section Two
10.4.4 Excerpts from Section Three
10.5 Levinas and Schindler’s List
10.6 Annotated Excerpts from Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism
10.6.1 From the Preface to Part Three: Totalitarianism
10.6.1.1 Preface
10.6.1.2 Stalin, Propaganda, and Control of the Press
10.6.1.3 What Held Totalitarian Regimes Together
10.6.1.4 A Method of Control Over the Masses: Conspiracy-Fueled Ideology
10.6.2 Excerpts from Chapter Ten Origins of Totalitarianism: A Classless Society
10.6.3 Excerpts from Arendt, Chapter Eleven: The Totalitarian Movement
10.6.4 Excerpts from Chapter Twelve of Origins of Totalitarianism: Totalitarianism in Power
10.6.5 Excerpts from Chapter Thirteen: Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government
10.7 Hannah Arendt and Schindler’s List
10.8 Fallacies and Cognitive Errors That Contribute to Racist Ideologies
10.9 For Further Study
10.9.1 Books
10.9.2 Online Sources
10.9.3 Websites for Information about Experiential Learning
Chapter 11: Just War Theory
Prerequisite viewing: Some or all of The Vietnam War (2017) by Burns and Novick
11.1 The Vietnam War Documentary Mini-Series
11.2 Assessing the Justice of War
11.3 Augustine of Hippo on the Justice of War: Annotated Excerpts from The City of God Against the Pagans
11.3.1 The Life and Work of Augustine of Hippo
11.3.2 Excerpts from The City of God, Book Three, Chapter Ten: Augustine
11.3.3 Excerpts from The City of God, Book Four, Chapter Three:
Whether the great extent of the empire, which has been acquired only by wars,
is to be reckoned among the good things either of the wise or the happy
11.3.4 An Excerpt from The City of God, Book Five, Chapter Seventeen:
To what profit the Romans carried on wars and how much they
contributed to the well-being of those whom they conquered
11.4 Historical Context for Thomas Aquinas on the Morality of Waging War
11.4.1 The Medieval Period
11.4.2 The Life and Work of Thomas Aquinas
11.5 Thomas Aquinas on the Justice of War: Annotated Excerpts from the Summa Theologica
11.5.1 Excerpts from Summa Theologica II-II, Question 40, Article One
11.5.2 Excerpts from Summa Theologica II-II, Question 64, Article Six
11.5.3 Excerpts from Summa Theologica II-II, Question 64, Article Seven
11.6 Modern Just War Theory, Augustine, Aquinas, and the Vietnam War
11.6.1 Overview
11.6.2 The Tenets of Modern Just War Theory in Relation to Augustine, Aquinas, and The Vietnam War Documentary
11.7 For Further Reading
11.7.1 Recommended Print Resources
11.7.2 Freely Available Online Resources
11.7.3 For Experiential Learning
Chapter 12: Capital Punishment
Prerequisite viewing: Dead Man Walking (1995); Recommended viewing: Making a Murderer (2015, 2018)
Prefatory Note
12.1 Introduction and Overview
12.2 Deterrence
12.2.1 Excerpts from John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government:
Chapters Two and Three
12.2.2 Deterrence: Mill and Van den Haag, Including Annotated Excerpts from Mill’s 1868 Address to the House of Commons.
12.3 Lex Talionis: Kant and Bedau: Including an Excerpt from Kant’s Philosophy of Law
12.4 Making a Murderer and the Possibility of Innocence
12.5 The Value of Human Life and Dead Man Walking
12.6 Brutalization, “Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” and Satisfaction: Seneca and Dead Man Walking, Including Excerpts from Letter Seven
12.7 Other Considerations: Costs and Race
12.8 Resources for Further Learning
12.8.1 Other Relevant Films
12.8.2 Books
12.8.3 Freely Available Online Resources
Index
Dr. Joseph Forte
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Rivier University,
Nashua, NH
Background
Dr. Joseph M. Forte teaches ethics courses at Rivier University that are part of the core curriculum. He specializes in ancient philosophy, and has published on the ethics of Plato as well as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. His university-level teaching spans over 13 years, with much of it focused on ethics.
Degrees
- Ph.D., The Catholic University of America
- M.A., Boston College
- B.A., College of the Holy Cross
Teaching:
- Rivier University
- Merrimack College
- Northeast Catholic College
- Boston College
- Bridgewater State University
- Southern New Hampshire University
- The Catholic University of America
- Prince George’s Community College
Courses Taught
- Love and Hope in the Good Life
- Theories of Ethics
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Philosophy Through Film
- Dignity, Work, Vocation
- Epistemology
- Metaphysics
- Modern Continental Philosophy
- The Philosophy and Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas
- Aristotelian Logic
- The Medieval Flowering of Christendom
- Greece, Rome, and the Birth of Christianity
- Ancient Greece and Philosophical Inquiry
- Foundations of Logical Reasoning
- Philosophy of the Person
- The Classical Mind
- The Modern Mind
- Introduction to Ethics
- Introduction to Critical Thinking
- Introduction to Philosophy
Publications
- “Hope in Plato’s Myth of Er,” Philosophical News 17 (2020): 33-57.
- “A Model for Linking Interdisciplinary Courses Using Minimal Additional Preparation,” Insight. Rivier Academic Journal 15 (2019).
- Commentary on Ewegen’s ‘A Man of No Substance: The Philosopher in Plato’s Gorgias,’ Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 33 (2018): 113-117.
- “Explaining Hope in Plato’s Philebus,” International Philosophical Quarterly 56 (2016): 283-295.
- “Plato’s Efforts at Political Recuperation in Republic 6”: Commentary on “Plato’s Republic and the Politics of Convalescence” by Jacob Howland in American Dialectic 1 (2010): 1-17.
- Review of The City-State of the Soul by Kevin Crotty, Review of Metaphysics 71 (2017): 376-377.
- Review of Quest for the Good Life by Oyvind Rabbas, Eyolfur Emilsson, Hallvard Fossheim., and Miira Tuominen, Review of Metaphysics 70 (2017): 576-579.
Web
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-forte-71b9224/
- Twitter: @JosephFortePh1
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCesv7S7ZaH55TTOU4fzjw8g?view_as=subscriber
- Academia.edu: https://rivier.academia.edu/JosephForte
I really enjoyed reading Moral Issues and Movies: An Introduction to Ethical Theories and Issues through the Lens of Film! It includes interesting and relevant topics to discuss, and provides multiple perspectives on each issue, which I think is important. Also, the author picked really good movies to go along with the material that we were reading about. I like how you selected a combination of entertaining movies with relevant messages (Juno, Million Dollar Baby, Avatar) and documentaries (Inconvenient Truth, Cowspiracy, etc.).
Diana Burleigh | Student