Cinema and philosophy in post-metaphysical times

The discussion entitled "Dangerous relationships: cinema and philosophy" was held on July 8 through the Zoom platform. César Solano, Director of the Pedagogy of Arts and Humanities career at the University of Cuenca, was the speaker who developed the theme for this meeting.

The discussion began with a fragment of a film and the following reflection by Solano: "When we go to the cinema we see the appearance of things and this allows us to ask ourselves, is this 'great deception' capable of generating philosophy".

Then the exhibitor went back in time and started from the origin of philosophy in Greece and touched on the passage from myth to logos to contextualize the subject matter of the discussion:

"On the one hand, philosophy appears several centuries ago, however, the origin of cinema is quite recent, we barely locate cinema in 1895, with the Lumiere brothers in France, who tried to give movement to images."

Along the same lines, he pointed out that photography made it possible to copy reality as it is presented to the subject with the utmost fidelity, but the cinema understands that this reality is not static:

"Morin makes an interesting comparison between the cinema and the airplane, two great inventions that 'fulfill the dream of the human being to fly, to achieve fantasies."

Subsequently, Solano made a review of prominent characters that have connected the two disciplines, both from a philosophical perspective and from the area of ​​cinema.

Regarding the philosophical field, Solano concluded that one way to "recover" this discipline -somewhat relegated in academic consideration- is to "cinematize philosophy", bring the viewer closer to various philosophical problems through cinematographic works.

Finally, the space was opened for the questions of the attendees; The event was attended by 25 people, including attendees from Colombia and Mexico.

This discussion was organized by the Open Chair of Humanistic Studies and Thought Bolívar Echeverría of the University of Azuay.

UDA Correspondent