Teachers of basic college ethics courses have long known that narrative instruments such as novels, stories, and films can be extremely effective teaching tools.  Nina Rosenstand’s popular text, The Moral of the Story (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), is a good example of a textbook that exploits this insight.  In the last few years there have been a number of texts oriented around film as the basic teaching device.  Dean A. Kowalski’s Moral Theory at the Movies is one of the better entries into this market.

The 359-page book is divided into three parts of three or four chapters each and includes a helpful index.  The chapters cover the usual array of issues addressed in basic ethics courses: relativism, the relationships between morality and religion, and psychology and morality, utilitarianism, Kant’s theory, social contract theory, virtue ethics, and the ethics of care.  It includes everything a teacher of college students would want in such a book: discussion questions, learning outcomes, excerpts from classic readings in moral theory, quizzes about many of the films being discussed, and clear explanatory prose.

A recurring concern when working with films in the classroom (or in a textbook) is simply which ones to choose.  Does one choose films that are self-consciously didactic in that they have a moral point to make?  What of the didactic film is bad art?  Does one choose films that are popular with one’s audience, in the hope that students can relate and engage with the relevant material?  Does one sacrifice artistic merit for popularity?  Or should one choose classic, well-made films even if the moral issues are more subtle, complex, and difficult for young students to discern?  I believe Kowalski has made good choices in this regard.  Although there are a number of films used in one way or another in the book, the films providing the major focus of each chapter are fairly recent and fairly decent in terms of their artistic quality.  They are Thank You for Smoking, Match Point, Hotel Rwanda, Frailty, The Cider House Rules, Cast Away, Extreme Measures, Horton Hears a Who!, V foe Vendetta, Groundhog Day, Vera Drake, and The Emperor’s Club.

The strength of the book is not so much in what it covers, but in how.  The innovation, of course, is its use of film.  That said, this book does offer one take on ethics not seen in other texts.  The introductory chapter, “Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Moral Reasoning,” details the differences between philosophy (specifically moral reasoning) and sophistry.  I can’t count the number of times that I have received the following response when people hear that I am a professional philosopher.  “Oh, you mean you are a professional bullshitter.”  Too many students also have this misconception.  Kowalski’s discussion explains well why this is a misconception.  What’s even more impressive is that he uses film to make the point.  The chapter is an excellent introduction to the rest of the book and to moral reasoning altogether.

Make no mistake.  Moral Theory at the Movies is a textbook aimed at college students.  And it’s a good one.  But any intelligent adult interested in learning more about what philosophers are doing in the realm of moral theory these days would be well served with this book.

© 2012 Ben Mulvey

Ben Mulvey, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of Arts and Sciences of Nova Southeastern University.  He received his doctorate in philosophy from Michigan State University specializing in political theory and applied ethics.  He teaches philosophy at NSU and is a member of the board of advisors of the Florida Bioethics Network.