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TV and Metaphysics
omen6
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Posted 03/29/08 - 05:18 AM:
Subject: TV and Metaphysics
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#1
Hey, I'm doing a project for my grade 12 philosophy class and we have to find a television show and pick out some metaphysical elements of it- but I dont watch much TV, at all! Do you guys think you could help me? Any shows? Maybe a link (if there is one) to an article relating a show and its metaphysical elements?

PS. The point of the project is to further our classes understanding of the theme (which can be any metaphysical one)

But yeah, any help would be REALLY appreciated, thanks.
Goaswerfraiejen
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Posted 03/29/08 - 08:06 AM:
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#2
Would movies count? Also, do you need something specifically about metaphysics, or could it be epistemology, aesthetics, etc.?
Kreius
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Posted 03/29/08 - 11:11 AM:
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#3
Futurama, Simpsons, Dexter (Showtime one), and, if they let you do movies, I'd suggest any Ingvar Bergman.
Any of them are fine, though extracting a metaphysical theme may be a bit hard.

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jaoman
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Posted 03/29/08 - 12:32 PM:
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#4
You can watch CNN or any American news. There's a very convoluted theory of what is real in play there. Sometimes it's plain Kantian in its incomprehensiblness. shaking head


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"With no relation to class or social background, whether it suits them or not, people yearn for a dream. Sustained by a dream, hurt by a dream, revived by a dream, killed by a dream. And even after being abandoned by a dream, it continues to smolder from the bottom of one's heart... probably until the verge of death. A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to the god named "dream."
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omen6
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Posted 03/29/08 - 12:42 PM:
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#5
thanks for the help so far, any more suggestions? And no, we can't do moviesmad I like the idea of using CNN; he wouldn't expect that, what themes do you think I could extract from it? And yes, it has to be specific to metaphysics unfortunately, I had had a good idea of an aesthetic TV show though!
jaoman
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Posted 03/29/08 - 02:29 PM:
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#6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_epist...

That's a possibility.

Or, if you wanted to be really cheap, you could just watch a sunday morning preacher going at it. Then all you have to do is transcribe the show and there have your metaphysics.

_____________________
"With no relation to class or social background, whether it suits them or not, people yearn for a dream. Sustained by a dream, hurt by a dream, revived by a dream, killed by a dream. And even after being abandoned by a dream, it continues to smolder from the bottom of one's heart... probably until the verge of death. A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to the god named "dream."
- Kentaro Miura
Goaswerfraiejen
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Posted 03/30/08 - 07:24 PM:
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#7
More straightforward, but this is an episode of Stargate: Atlantis dealing with dreams and fear, which are easily compatible with all kinds of wacky metaphysicians. The obvious ones being Freud/Jung and Heidegger (conveniently, the subtitles are in German, giving us "Angst" as the word for "fear").


Just an easy option.
Mushufasa11
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Posted 03/30/08 - 08:11 PM:
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There is a show called "Criss Angel: Mindfreak," which deals with metaphysical phenomena in the form of illusions / magic tricks. Through total concentration, he (Criss Angel) exerts a "mind-force" that allows him to levitate from building to building, make an elephant disappear in the middle of a parking lot, make orange juice turn into a bird, etc.

Edited by Mushufasa11 on 03/30/08 - 08:18 PM
Brian O'Blivion
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Posted 03/30/08 - 09:19 PM:
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The show "Serial Experiments Lain" would be very great for this, lots of stuff to pull out. It's a 13 episode series.
wikipedia wrote:
Lain is influenced by philosophical subjects such as reality, identity, and communication.[2] The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her cold mother, and her computer-obsessed father. The first ripple on the pond of Lain's lonely life appears when she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, a schoolmate who committed suicide. When Lain receives the message at home, Chisa tells her (in real time) that she is not dead, but has just "abandoned the flesh", and has found God in the Wired. From then on, Lain is bound to a quest which will take her ever deeper into both the network and her own thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ryTD8E1VGU


Edited by Brian O'Blivion on 03/30/08 - 11:23 PM
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