is an excellent collection of essays for anyone who likes philosophy that thinks outside the box and inside the world we live in, One thing we don't need any more of is another inscrutable scholarly book on Heidegger's concept of Dasien or another on Descartes' concept of Being or yet another that attempts to extract what little meaning can be found in Nietzsche's Zarathustra.
It is therefore refreshing to see philosophers travel in a path first blazed by Stanley Cavell who deployed plainlanguage philosophy to untangle and retangle fascinating philosophical conundrums brought on by the classic Hollywood marriage comedies.
Cavell showed the power of philosophical thinking when deployed on common things like movies, and his writing in turn dignified the movies he wrote about,
In this book, editor John Huss and a stellar cast of contemporary philosophers parse out the many philosophical issues brought about in thinking of the movie Planet of the Apes.
Like Cavell, the authors of this collection show that a movie of highentertainment and deep popculture status is able to evoke through metaphor and powerful storytelling a range of unsettling issues brought on by interspecies love warfare between species, resemblance and the resultant identity crises brought on by the commingling of two species, and the fight for domination and power.
Issues tackled in this book include: Ape Ethics, Ape Identity, Ape Politics, Ape Equality and Ape Science, The writing throughout this entertaining book is firstrate as is the thinking, Of particular interest are John Huss's "Serkis Act", Massimo Pigliucci's essay on genetic egineering, Lori Gruen and John S, Wilkins essays on ape ethics and Chad Timm's fascinating essay on the ape, Ceasar's identity crisis,
The best essay in the bunch, however, is the final one by Eugene Halton, Halton pulls off an excellent and fascinating bit of writing/thinking with a totally unique perspective, His thinking here on the present state of our species on the planet is so profound that I felt sorry it was locked away in this book, In fact, if he could convert his thinking into a novel that touches on the themes he raises he might be able to reach a broader audience, I don't say this to disparage his philosophical thinkingI only say it to suggest that there may be real universal appeal in his perspective of how humans have infantalized wild species forcing them into a dependencyand how this is profoundly narcissistic.
Overall, this is a fine and interesting collection, Now, armed with these writers' ideas, I shall go back and watch the film again, which is a true testament to this book, "A planet where apes evolved from men There's got to be an answer, "
"Don't look for it, Taylor, You may not like what you find, " The first thing most people think of when thinking About Planet of the Apes is Charlton Hestons celebrated overacting as Taylor saying, “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!”, but after reading this entertaining and thoughtprovoking book, Planet of the Apes and Philosophy: Great Apes Think Alike edited by John Huss, part of the Popular Culture and Philosophy series from Open Court, I realize that either I dont think enough about Planet of the Apesor these philosophers think about it way too much.
While I enjoyed all these cool essays on how Planet of the Apes pertains to: war, peace, love, hate, prejudice, revolution, evolution, genetic engineering, time/space paradoxes, insanity, identity, the environment, our inability to learn from the past, not looking toward the future, what made me think most was about our ability as humans to speak.
Humans talk. We talk a lot. We talk about important things, And a lot about trivial things,
We tell truths, lies, we tell people what they want to hear and sometimes we tell them only what we think they need to know,
We laugh, we scream, we whisper, we sing, we hum, Were low talkers, high talkers, close talkers, mumblers
We feel our being able to speak separates us from animals, somehow makes us a superior species,
Yeah, so superior,
This book is an absorbing and straightforward work that lets us explore many ethical, political, scientific, cultural, creative, and emotional issues in the fun and safe environment of the Planet of the Apes franchise.
It makes one think, is our new frenzied behaviour because we jumped into technology that instead of amplifying our voices in fact mutes them The information age was supposed to enlighten, it was supposed to be the great equalizer.
Yet we are bombarded by that information, it comes at us in waves, incharacters, in memes, emails, texts, posts, pictures, videos, social mediaand theres no need for that information to be correct, just out there.
Whatever it is, we cant seem to stopthe movie Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the latest in the franchise theth plusTV series will be hitting theaters July,.
Maybe we should try to work out our problems here on Earth without struggling too hard to solve the mysteries of mankind and the universe, after all, we might not like the answers.
“You know what they say, Human see, human do, ” Julius
" the Earth has aged nearlyyears since we left it, . . You, who are reading me now, are a different breed, . . I hope a better one, Tell me, though, does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the, still make war against his brother, . . keep his neighbor's children starving" Taylor
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Loved this book, many thought
provoking essays about one of my most favorite franchises since childhood, Admittedly, as a nonphilosopher two pages into Nietzsche and I'm dozing I was a little bit wary of this book, but dissecting the philosophical undertones of Planet of the Apes movies, which are some of the smartest and strangest at times, campiest I see you, Escape from the Planet of the Apes of theth century was intriguing.
What I was worried could be a plodding foray into existentialist murk turned out to be a very accessible collection of essays written by interesting, funny, insightful philosophers, You can almost picture some of them sitting at their computers, mulling over these essays with a beer in hand, because they're colloquial and fun, It's a nice way to structure the book you could read it cover to cover, or skip around, It's divided into nine thematic sections, and my favorite was III, Ape Equality should human interests be given greater moral weight than nonhuman interests because of our perceived greater intelligence and the other thoughtful essays on the ethics of captivity and whether or not language mastery is an accurate measure of intelligence my pretentious vocabulary and I would like to think so.
I'm really looking forward to watching the movies again and considering these ideas, A great read!
John Huss, SM', PhD'
Editor
From the editor: "An AllStar lineup of philosophers chime in on issues raised by the Planet of the Apes films.
If you are a Planet of the Apes fan, you'll love this book, " What makes humans different from other animals, what humans are entitled to do to other species, whether time travel is possible, what limits should be placed on science and technology, the morality and practicality of genetic engineeringthese are just some of the philosophical problems raised by Planet of the Apes.
Planet of the Apes and Philosophy looks at all the deeper issues involved in the Planet of the Apes stories, It covers the entire franchise, from Pierre Boullesnovel Monkey Planet to the successfulreboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The chapters reflect diverse points of view, philosophical, religious, and scientific,
The ethical relations of humans with animals are explored in several chapters, with entertaining and incisive observations on animal intelligence, animal rights, and humananimal interaction, Genetic engineering is changing humans, animals, and plants, raising new questions about the morality of such interventions, The scientific recognition that humans and chimps sharepercent of their genes makes a future in which nonhuman animals acquire greater importance a distinct possibility,
Planet of the Apes is the most resonant of all scientific apocalypse myths, .
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