Spurred on by a student's inquiry (thanks, Ryan!) of how 2001: A Space Odyssey could be related to philosophy, I've come up with the following suggestion: One could read the film along the lines of Kant's assertion that humans have three natural predispositions: the technical, the pragmatic, and the moral. Three sequences from the film jump out at me in this regard:
I'm also relying on Kubrick's own descriptions of the closing 'star-child' sequence as representing humans "returning to Earth prepared for the next leap forward in man's evolutionary destiny" (Thomas Allen Nelson, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982, 130). This language echoes that of Kant in the Anthropology, where he investigates the character of humans so as to know in advance about their destiny.
Of course, I'll need to watch the film again, and perhaps re-read the book as well. It's been far too long for me to write anything on this without the material fresh in my mind. However, I hope this isn't too clichéd a connection, and that I'm doing more here than the equivalent of pointing out that Pink Floyd's "Echoes" lines up with the last 23 minutes of Kubrick's film (though even this, and the other associations the film evokes for viewers, fascinates me).
One Comment
1 Colby wrote:
I've used the opening of this film in my Introduction to Philosophy course to illustrate themes from Aristotle. The key moment for me is when the ape-man grasps the bone, looks at it, and experiences a sudden dawning realization. I take this to be the kind of relation between subject and object that Aristotle identifies with power, logic, and insight - the core of the human advancement over animal instinct.