Author:

Keywords:

Film, upbringing, Cavell, Arendt

Abstract:

This paper links to the growing interest, in educational philosophy, in film and its potential to critically investigate our current conditions. We articulate our own position on what (particular) film can do in this regard with reference to Cavell’s work on the ontology of film, and argue that the force of (particular) film is not given as such, but is articulated by the viewer’s acknowledging and responding to that film’s invitation to think. The focus of our concern is specifically on upbringing, as central to the preparation of children “for the task of renewing a common world” (Arendt) but generally neglected in the way this is taken up in educational philosophy. Thus, the paper contributes to the reintroduction of upbringing and the parent-child relationship to the field, as an aspect of our lives worthy of philosophical consideration, and does so in a way that offers an affirmative account of this by means of an account of the educational force of film.