Ridley Scott’s
Blade Runner
is widely regarded as a "masterpiece of modern cinema" and is regularly ranked as one of the great films of all time. Set in a dystopian future where the line between human beings and ‘replicants’ is blurred, the film raises a host of philosophical questions about what it is to be human, the possibility of moral agency and freedom in ‘created’ life forms, and the capacity of cinema to make a genuine contribution to our engagement with these kinds of questions.
This volume of specially commissioned chapters systematically explores and addresses these issues from a philosophical point of view. Beginning with a helpful introduction, the seven chapters examine the following questions:
How is the theme of death explored in
and with what implications for our understanding of the human condition?
What can we learn about the relationship between emotion and reason from the depiction of the ‘replicants’ in
?
How are memory, empathy, and moral agency related in
How does the style and ‘mood’ of
bear upon its thematic and philosophical significance?
Is
a meditation on the nature of film itself?
Including a brief biography of the director and a detailed list of references to other writings on the film,
is essential reading for students – indeed anyone - interested in philosophy and film studies.
Contributors: Colin Allen, Peter Atterton, Amy Coplan, David Davies, Berys Gaut, Stephen Mulhall, C. D. C. Reeve.