Dreams, what they mean and what they are, are questions that have long been in the philosophical discourse, these questions even branching out into the fields psychology and biology. However, one question about dreams that hasn’t been asked is if the dream is a kind of art, and narrowing it down for the purposes of this paper, if dreams are a kind of fiction. This question has effects and implications and influences in so many fields of philosophy that answering it will be kept to the essentials of the argument. In this paper, I will examine the question if a dream is a fiction, how and if dreams and film are related, and I will conclude that by examination of the similarities and distinctions that exist between fictions and dreams …show more content…
The next portion is to attempt to define what a fiction is, and here I will use Gregory Currie’s essay What is Fiction? In it, he argues that fictions are engaging in games of make-belief, an idea present in Kendall Walton’s Fearing Fictionality article. The main crux of Currie’s definition is intentionality. He argues that the creator of the fiction not only intends to have the audience engage in games of make-belief but that they will also do it as a result of understanding that intention. He also argues that the creator intends for the reader to make-believe the fiction, through the uses of props, be it the sentences, actors, et cetera. She intends them to make-believe the fiction partly as a recognition of the intent to make-believe the work as a fiction. So the audience understands the work as fiction because they perceive it as fiction. He argues that it can be recognized or perceived as fiction through the use of advertisement that the work is a fiction, that the work includes elements familiar to fiction, or that the author can explicitly state that a particular work is a fiction through deliberate word or stylistic choices. He does make it clear that this intention can go awry, that the audience and community can misconstrue the intention of the author, and can even go so far that the community around the fiction attributes the status of fiction towards the fiction, regardless of the intention of the creator. It is
Discuss how your understanding of change has been developed by your prescribed and related texts.
In literature, there are genres. Two main genres are fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is a work of art that is not real or based on the facts. “‘Fiction’ refers to literature created from the imagination” (“What is the difference…?”). It can explain a story in a different point of view, maybe in a way that is out of the norm. Fiction is basically just nonfiction in an exaggerated way. Though fiction may not be based on the facts, it can still resemblance a sense of real life events. “Fiction may base on stories on actual historical events. Although fictitious characters are presented in a fictitious setting in stories and novels, yet they may have some resemblance with real life events and characters” (“Fiction”). Literature is meant to
In the First Meditation Descartes famously presented his ‘dream argument’ or ‘dream paradox’ in which he questions how we can distinguish between dreams and waking life. In this essay, I will explore various responses to the argument such as Hobbes and Locke and how I think Descartes would dismiss these arguments. I will finally present my own criticism alongside the work of Austin, Simpson and Ryle in order to illustrate the inconsistency of Descartes claims. In order to deconstruct the dream paradox I will appeal to one of the three common methods of solving paradoxes; denying a premise, particularly the first premise as this results in the collapse of the remaining conditional premises. I will ultimately show that the dream argument is a paradox and how this causes the dream argument to fail.
The best part of a long, hard-working day is when you finally get to lay in your bed, close your eyes and let your imagination run free. As you sleep your mind takes you to another place far away from the real world. You begin to dream. Over the night, you may have several dreams. In the morning, you may wake up and wonder what your dreams were suppose to mean for you and your life. By analyzing your dream, it "gives a true picture of the 'subjective state'-how we really feel about ourselves-which the conscious mind cannot or will not give" (Wietz 289). In order to find the meaning of a dream, you have to pick out the most important symbols and define them. But you may be wondering what exactly is a symbol?
To many people, dreams are the thoughts that occur while sleeping, having almost mystic qualities. For millennia the significance of dreams has escaped even the brightest of philosophers and intellectuals. Many people have speculated about why people dream and what meanings the dreams have but in recent times two theories have gained credibility in answering those questions. The first theory is Sigmund Freuds and the other is known as the cognitive theory of dreams also known as biological determinism.
The first section will explore how the philosophical question of determining dream from reality is brought up in the movie, Inception. By using scenes and dialogue from the movie, the personal dilemma of determining dream from reality for Cobb will be illustrated. The second section will use Descartes’ Rationalist theory and Hume’s Empiricist theory to examine Cobb’s dilemma and to explain the challenges faced by one who questions whether they are dreaming or in reality. In the third section, the writer of this paper will provide advice to Cobb on how to handle his dilemma of dream versus reality and compare and contrast which philosopher, Descartes or Hume, would agree with that advice. The paper ends with a conclusion highlighting the philosophical question of whether one can determine the difference between dreaming and reality, Cobb’s dilemma of dream versus reality, and how Descartes and Hume would view it.
What Dreams May Come is a movie about life, loss, death, afterlife and rebirth. The film explores the emotions evoked by a variety of characters when they are faced with coping with tragedy and death. It also delves into the manifestations of heaven and the variety of forms heaven takes in the minds of different people.
There are many facts that are unknown about the mind. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand how it works. We have learned that the mind has a number of different levels of processing. Before Sigmund Freud “nearly all the previous research and theorizing of psychologists had dealt with conscious, such as perception, memory, judgment, and learning“ (Hunt185). Freud brought forth a number of theories that dealt with “the unconscious and its crucial role in human behavior”(Hunt 185). The unconscious is a storage area for information that is not being used. It is also the home of “powerful primitive drives and forbidden wishes that constantly generated pressure on the conscious mind”(Hunt
Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father is exactly what it claims to be by title, a story of race and identity. Barack Obama comes from a diverse background, which he explores throughout the book. Having a white American mother and black Kenyan father, he has a different experience than the majority of people in society when it comes to race and identity, however still it seems similar to the experience of many blacks as described in William E. Cross’s Black Psychological theory, the Nigresence Model of Racial Identity Development. While Obama’s experience does not necessarily occur in chronological order according to Cross’s model, in my opinion, it portrays a good example of how someone enters each stage of
The speech “I Have a Dream” was delivered by Martin Luther King on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on 28th August 1963. The speech was dramatically delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial and it was witnessed by about two million people. This speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and notable speeches in history and the top American speech of the 20th century.
The purpose of this essay is to find similarities between the 2 dream theories and the movie inception; with the dream theories being Freud’s theory and the Activation synthesis theory,
The movie What Dreams May Come gives a rather positive view on the afterlife. I think most of the ideas and views shown in the film are related to many of society's main beliefs pertaining to death and the afterlife, but the views are left broad enough so they can relate to any specific religion. Personally, I have no concrete belief concerning the afterlife, or whether or not if there even is life after death, but I can see why many people would agree with many of the films perspectives. The movie is shown through Robin Williams's character, Chris Nielson who's first personal encounter with death is when his two children, Marie and Ian both die in a car accident. Four years later he dies himself after being hit
At some point, someone has said that high school will be the best four years of their lives and college gets even better. So with that idea in people’s heads, they come up with their ideal image of the college. They start planning the perfect scenario of what college they will go to and what their roommate will be like. They often try to compare an unrealistic image and turn it into a realistic image, but they are unlike in many ways. Once students step onto the college campus, they will soon face what it is actually like to be in college.When people understand that college is not the perfect movie scene, then they will take advantage of expanding and furthering their education seriously. Going to college is a whole different experience and there is a lot more to it such as the rigorous classes and overwhelming school work, being more independent, and forming new bonds with others.
I jolted awake in fear. I had a dream. A weird dream. A vivid dream. It was full of people shouting and bright flashes of light. It was confusing yet clear, like some part of me understood it. I didn’t know it would be important then but now I know. How? Well, it happened like this…
"You'll never see an object in dream that you haven't seen in your daily life"