Metaphysics and the Moving Image is an exploration of how the medium of film inherits metaphysics, the ancient tradition of Western thought, and why it does so at the very moment philosophy sought to overcome it. As the age of metaphysics comes to a close with the Nietzschean "death of God" crisis of nihilism, the emergence of film gives birth to a new absolute value, a secular re-enchantment of the world, or 'the world in its own image'. Film radically transforms the metaphysical paradigm from rational speculation through concepts to mechanical revelation through images and sounds-a revelation vital to the capacity for the art of film to enlighten and enthrall.

About the Author
Trevor Mowchun is Assistant Professor and Director of Film and Media Studies at University of Florida. His scholarly essays and criticism have appeared in Film International, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Cineaction, Evental Aesthetics, and Senses of Cinema. He also co-wrote and directed World to Come, an experimental drama on the spiritual disenchantment that plagues a religious community in the wake of tragedy.

Reviews
"Trevor Mowchun's extraordinary new book shines new light on our understanding of things far more basic than film, including experience, consciousness, perception, and reality. An extremely stylish and engaging author, Mowchun takes us on a tour of his own deepest concerns and passions, compels us to share them, and tells us something new about ourselves and the cinematic experiences we have had our whole lives, and which we now see we have failed to examine to their very depths." -Justin E.H. Smith, University of Paris



Book Information
ISBN 9781474493901
Author Trevor Mowchun
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press