Woody Allen and Philosophy: [You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong?] (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 8)

Fifteen philosophers representuing different schools of thought answer the question what is Woody Allen trying to say in his films? And why should anyone care? Focusing on different works and varied aspects of Allen's multifaceted output, these essays explore the philosophical undertones of Anne Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Manhattan, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and reminds us that just because the universe is meaningless and life is pointless is no reason to commit suicide. Contents Foreword: Can We Not Talk about Sex All the Time? Acknowledgments Introduction:You Know Nothing of My Work Act I: Morality, Interpretation, and the Meaning of Life 1. God, Suicide, and the Meaning of Life in the Films of Woody Allen -MARK T. CONARD 2. Integrity in Woody Allen’s Manhattan -AEON J. SKOBLE 3. Does Morality Have to Be Blind? A Kantian Analysis of Crimes and Misdemeanors -JAMES LAWLER 4. Arguing Interpretation: The Pragmatic Optimism of Woody Allen -IAN JARVIE Act II: Woody’s Craft 5. The Mousetrap: Reading Woody Allen -JAMES M. WALLACE 6. Woody on Aesthetic Appreciation -JASON HOLT 7. Art and Voyeurism in the Films of Woody Allen -JEROLD ABRAMS 8. “You Don’t Deserve Cole Porter”: Love and Music According to Woody Allen -JAMES B. SOUTH 9. Dead Sharks and Dynamite Ham: The Philosophical Use of Humor in Annie Hall -LOU ASCIONE 10. Reconstructing Ingmar:The Aesthetic Purging of the Great Model -PER F. BROMAN Act III: Five Films 11. The Dangers of Hedonism: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy -SANDER LEE 12. Inauthenticity and Personal Identity in Zelig -DAVID DETMER 13. It’s All Darkness: Plato,The Ring of Gyges, and Crimes and Misdemeanors -JOHN G. PAPPAS 14. Self-Knowledge in Another Woman -JILL GORDON 15. Woody Allen’s Film Noir Light: Crime, Love, and Self-Knowledge in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion -MARY P. NICHOLS Entertainment for Intellectuals: A Woody Allen Filmography All These Great Minds . . . Index Woody Allen--comedian, writer, director, actor, musician, and deep thinker--is clearly trying to tell us something, but what? And why should we care? Fifteen philosophers representing different viewpoints give us their answers, focussing on different Woody Allen works and varied aspects of his multifaceted output. Everyone who wears glasses, and must therefore be an intellectual, will want to find out:. ·how Schopenhauer's theory of humor is exemplified in Annie Hall;. ·why, for all his apparent pessimism, Woody gives us a brighter alternative to the Bogartian nihilism of film noir;. ·that when