ABSTRACT
Two central philosophical problems are the problems of knowledge and the problem of being; it is possible to argue that each is prior to the other, and it has been argued in the previous sections of this chapter that films bear in various ways on these problems and these problems bear in various ways on films. From the point of view of knowledge, films highlight sharply the issue of appearance versus reality, providing difficulties both for objective idealism and for naive sensationalist realism. From the point of view of existence or being, films restate the problem of the Golden Mountain, are a troublesome case since they are concrete physical objects which somehow also ‘contain’ meaningful content ‘in’ which there are (non-existent) objects, people, events. Furthermore, some of the things films contain were once, or are still, real; others have never existed in any other form than that seen on the screen. Descartes believed that the way to solve the problem of existence was to ask of every seeming-thing whether its existence could be doubted. He found that it was logically possible to do so for most things, even for his own self. So it looked to him as though, if there were a God, that God had made a world and put in it a creature such that the world was capable of systematic deception of man. This scenario struck Descartes as unlikely, since it was inconsistent with the properties of God. So, if he could prove there must be a God, which he did to his own satisfaction, then he could argue that even though it was logically possible to doubt his own existence it was not possible to attribute to God systematic deception. Hence, I think therefore I am, and God assures me that that move is sound. From this certain foundation in thought, Descartes rebuilds the world and our knowledge of it.
