Thomas E. Wartenberg - Fight Club

Fight Club

Released in 1999, Fight Club is David Finchers popular adaption of Chuck Palahniuks cult novel, and one of the most philosophically rich films of recent years. This is the first book to explore the varied philosophical aspects of the film. Beginning with an introduction by the editor that places the film and essays in context, each chapter explores a central theme of Fight Club from a philosophical perspective. Topics discussed include:

Fight Club, Platos cave and Descartes cogito

Moral disintegration

Identity, gender and masculinity

Visuals and narration.

Including annotated further reading at the end of each chapter, Fight Club is essential reading for anyone interested in the film, as well as those studying philosophy and film studies.

Thomas E. Wartenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, USA. He is author of the Routledge book Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy (2007), Existentialism: A Beginners Guide (2008), and Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy Through Childrens Literature (2009). He is editor (with Cynthia Freeland) of Philosophy and Film (1995), also available from Routledge.

Philosophers on Film

In recent years, the use of film in teaching and doing philosophy has moved to center stage. Film is increasingly used to introduce key topics and problems in philosophy, from ethics and esthetics to epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It is also acknowledged that some films raise important philosophical questions of their own. Yet until now, dependable resources for teachers and students of philosophy using film have remained very limited. Philosophers on Film answers this growing need and is the first series of its kind.

Each volume assembles a team of international contributors to explore a single film in depth, making the series ideal for classroom use. Beginning with an introduction by the editor, each specially commis-sioned chapter will discuss a key aspect of the film in question. Additional features include a biography of the director and suggestions for further reading.

Philosophers on Film is an ideal series for students studying philosophy and film, esthetics, and ethics, and anyone interested in the philosophical dimensions of cinema.

Available:

Talk to Her, edited by A. W. Eaton

The Thin Red Line, edited by David Davies

Memento, edited by Andre Kania

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, edited by Christopher Grau

Forthcoming:

Blade Runner, edited by Amy Coplan

Vertigo, edited by Katalin Makkai

Fight Club

Edited by

Thomas E. Wartenberg

This edition published 2012
by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Thomas E. Wartenberg for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors for their contributions.

The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Fight club/edited by Thomas E. Wartenberg. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Philosophers on film)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Fight club (Motion picture). I. Wartenberg, Thomas E.

PN1997.F4275F54 2011

791.43 72 dc22 2011003029

ISBN13: 978-0-415-78188-6 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-78189-3 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-80800-9 (ebk)

Contents

Illustrations

All illustrations in this volume are reproduced from Fight Club, Dir. David Fincher (1999)

Notes on the contributors

Nancy Bauer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, where she teaches courses in feminist philosophy, philosophy and film, phenomenology and existentialism, philosophy of the ordinary, and ethics. She is the author of Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism (2001) and is presently finishing up a book called How to Do Things with Pornography, which is a meditation on contemporary philosophys powers to criticize the culture from which it springs. Most of her writing is concerned in one way or another with the attenuation of philosophys social relevance in the wake of its professionalization in the twentieth century.

Ben Caplan is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Ohio State. He works mainly in metaphysics, construed broadly to include the ontology of art. He has published several papers in the British Journal of Aesthetics with Carl Matheson and was once a Teen Movie Critic for the Montreal Gazette.

Charles Guignon is professor of philosophy at the University of South Florida in 2001, he taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, and the University of Vermont. He is the author of Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge and On Being Authentic, and co-author of Re-envisioning Psychology. In addition, he edited The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, The Good Life, The Existentialists, and Dostoevskys The Grand Inquisitor, and co-edited Existentialism: Basic Writings and Richard Rorty.

Sam Shpall is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He works chiefly in ethics, but he also writes on film and the philosophy of art. He received his PhD from USC in 2011.

Murray Skees is Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida. His articles have appeared in the International Philosophical Quarterly, Film and Philosophy, Critical Horizons, and Philosophy and Social Criticism. He has published on film, esthetics, digital culture, and social and political thought.

Cynthia A. Stark is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. She works on political philosophy, ethical theory, feminist philosophy, and philosophy through film. Most recently she has published articles in Hypatia, Metaphilosophy and Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Thomas E. Wartenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, USA. He is the author of two books on film: Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism, and Thinking On Screen: Film as Philosophy (Routledge). He has recently edited three books: The Nature of Art, The Philosophy of Film: Introductory Text and Readings (with Angela Curran), and Thinking Through Cinema: Film as Philosophy (with Murray Smith). His most recent publications include Existentialism: A Beginners Guide, and Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy Through Childrens Literature