Publish at June 08 2020 Updated January 26 2023
Philosophy is a very dense universe to approach for young people. Because it includes many thinkers who have totally different views on human experience, existence, etc. Presented in this way, it can seem so dry that few will have the courage to go beyond this impression. However, going to discover this universe is of an unsuspected richness since everything that surrounds it touches on some philosophical school. This includes consumed cultural works as well...
This is why some have decided to approach themes and philosophers from elements of popular culture. This "pop philosophy" has seen a growing interest with series such as Game of Thrones which, in addition to immense popularity, has dealt with multiple strong philosophical themes without the viewers necessarily being aware of it. Frédéric Duriez had already, in this article, given an idea how this story and its characters led to various worldviews. In it, he will quote Marianne Chaillan, probably the most interviewed professor in the French media. The one who started this "pop philo" by using Jean-Jacques Goldman to talk about David Hume has become a leading authority on this approach to philosophy.
She even wrote a book solely focused on Game of Thrones in order to address all the themes that were dealt with during the series. For her, dividing culture and its more popular counterpart is absurd because there are as many nuggets of thought in Harry Potter as there are in Émile Zola. There appear, in well-known songs, lyrics specific to Nietzsche in Florent Pagny or Marx in Claude François. In this interview on RTL, she reminds us that fans of J.K. Rowling's Wizard and Disney's animated adventure "The Lion King" have been treated to a heartfelt exposition of stoicism with Rised's Mirror or the melody Hakuna Matata.
Or, she's not alone in this approach. Increasingly, humanities scholars are looking at her connections between beloved mainstream works and various philosophies. Many see Game of Thrones (again) as a milieu where different doctrines intersect.
Whether it's Plato's ideal, the baseness of Machiavelli's Prince, or even Kant in the morality of duty, it thus stands as an extremely fertile ground for dealing with philosophical themes. Another pop culture monument, Star Wars, also offers interesting themes. For Gilles Vervisch, author of the book "Star Wars, la philo contre-attaque", the science fiction saga arouses fascination given the political, religious, technical and identity questions it poses. For example, contrary to many Eastern and Western philosophers who assert that the path of good is the path to happiness, Star Wars poses an almost opposite observation. Instead, evil, the dark side seems more appealing at times and difficult to resist for those on the light side of the Force.
In Quebec, the question of irony in relation to certain elements of pop culture such as country music or wolf-themed sweaters. Yet this leads some to reflect; for example, a Gilles Deleuze would have had no problem wearing this type of vest without irony, which he saw as inward and cruel laughter and not reaching out to the other, the one who finds it beautiful.
In fact, even the writers of successful series are aware of the philosophical themes in their work. In fact, the creator of the comedy "The Good Place" discussed philosophy with arts and humanities students at the University of Notre Dame. Some feel that in a world that is sharply divided ideologically, pop culture has allowed a "certain" rapprochement or at least a way to address the divisions.
For philosophy professors, then, it becomes a very interesting channel for dealing with the various themes decided upon in a course. To do this, like this American, one must then prepare well the extracts of films, series, novels, songs according to the themes. They can serve as examples illustrating the theory or as pretexts for exercises. They will have to answer one or more questions based on the knowledge acquired. During the final assignment, he even allowed his students to use any pop culture excerpt to develop a philosophical argument or to make an artistic creation.
Besides, YouTube can be a great source not only of excerpts but also of reflections. Those fluent in English can visit Wisecrack, a channel that has combined pop culture and philosophy for years. Or, for an introduction to philosophy, they could use this vignette from a French videographer who flies over various philosophers (omitting the Middle Ages, though) and summarizes their work in a principle, slipping in, among other things, references to Star Wars or The Matrix, another blockbuster work that has never hidden its philosophical subtexts:
So, it seems that pop culture is, indeed, a superb avenue for addressing many philosophical theories dating from antiquity to those of the 20th century. For the teaching profession, here is a huge pool of realizations that can be used to captivate learning minds.
Illustration: Andrew Martin from Pixabay
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