Cinema, philosophy and paideia

ABSTRACT

I here read the Iranian film Hit the Road through the eyes of the French philosopher Alain Badiou. In doing so, I hope to illuminate the triadic link between cinema, philosophy and paideia (ethical-political education). To explore, I adopt a philosophical methodology with the double ambition to reveal the latent pedagogies of the film and to acquire insights on the distinctiveness of a Badiouan conception of cinema. My questions are to what degree and in what ways cinematic experience can be said to promote ethical-political formation. I start by portraying Badiou’s cinematic philosophy. Next, I expose how Hit the Road confronts us with a hidden real. Third, I close the paper by considering Badiou’s idea of cinema as an influential form of ethical-political education.

KEYWORDS:

• Philosophy of education
• cinema: Badiou
• covering-over
• ethical-political education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Ja’fari Shia Islam considers dogs as unclean, najis. So, dogs are not allowed in today’s Iran. To care for a sick dog may thus be interpreted as a sign of rebellion against the current theocratic regime of Iran.

2. https://www.tiff.no/.

3. One example is the excessive civil unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022. The massive street protests, which lead to numerous arrests and executions, have now turned into a silent protest, in which thousands of women in Tehran abandon compulsory headscarves.

4. The family demonstrate many illegal activities; such as their caring for a sick stray dog, their enjoyment of pre-revolutionary pop music, and the mother’s song and dance.

5. Referring to cinema as a ‘democratic emblem,’ Badiou simply postulates cinema as a mass art ‘on a scale which suffers no comparison with any other art’ (Badiou 2009b, p. 2). To avoid misinterpretations, however, I should underline that Badiou rejects an idea of a state-based parliamentary democracy because it ‘is the principal organizer of consensus … In fact, the word “democracy” concerns what I shall call authoritarian opinion’ (Badiou 2005c, 78). As an alternative to a parliamentary democracy, he proposes a generic democracy based on an axiom of equality (Badiou 2020; Wright 2009).

6. Some authors compare the ancient Greek notion of paideia to the Latin humanitas and the German Bildung, which equally signify the processes and purposes of a general education cultivating humanity (Andersen 1999; Horn 2018; Straume 2014). In his trilogy on Paideia, the German classicist Werner Jaeger highlights how the German Bildung was from the outset inspired by the Ancient Greek tradition. ‘The German word Bildung clearly indicates the essence of education in the Greek, the Platonic sense; for it covers the artist’s act of plastic formation as well as the guiding pattern present to his imagination, the idea or typos. Throughout history, whenever this conception reappears, it is always inherited from the Greeks … ’ (Jaeger 1965, p. 12). Nevertheless, it is today vital to recognize the historical situatedness of each of these concepts, as they mirror distinct societal norms and educational ideals characteristic of their time (i.e. Masschelein and Ricken 2003).

7. In general, the term ‘cinema’ (from Greek kinema—motion or movement) denotes a movie theater, a film, the film industry, or cinematography, which is the art or science of motion picture photography. When Badiou speaks about cinema, however, he refers to cinema as a form of thinking at the edge of art and non-art.

8. Within Badiou’s philosophical system, truths do not belong to philosophy, but emerge in non-philosophical spheres of life. The task of philosophy is therefore not to produce truths, but rather to identify, affirm and strengthen these emerging truths (Badiou 1999, 2011; Strand 2022).

9. All quotes are from the English subtitles of the film.

10. The Azeris constitute a substantial minority in Iran. They belong to the Turkic people and live mainly in northwestern Iran (Wikipedia 2022).

11. By articulating a new theory of truth, Alain Badiou adds to the modern theories that range from correspondence theories via coherence theories, to constructivist theories of truth. With an ambition to restoring the validity of the fundamental categories of truth, universality and objectivity, Badiou sets out to rescue philosophy from unfortunate orthodoxies, return it to its intrinsic conditions and revitalize what he conceives as philosophy’s true mission (Badiou 1999, 2011).

12. Alain Badiou’s ‘Being and Event trilogy’ contains three books on his logic. First, Being and Event (2005b), published in French in 1988; next, Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II (2009c), published in French in 2005; and third, Immanence of Truths: Being and Event III (2022), published in French in 2018.