Thinker · TH-0312
Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll is an American philosopher of art, long based at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a leading figure in the analytic philosophy of…
Also known as Noel Carroll
b. 1947 · New York (CUNY Graduate Center); Madison, Wisconsin; Philadelphia
Traditions: Analytic
Noël Carroll is an American philosopher of art, long based at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a leading figure in the analytic philosophy of film and mass art. He criticised the psychoanalytic and semiotic 'grand theory' of film studies and favoured a cognitive approach that explains film experience through ordinary perception, emotion and inference. In ethics and art he defends moderate moralism: moral defects can sometimes be aesthetic defects.
Key ideas
- Film theory should proceed piecemeal, by answerable questions, rather than by an all-encompassing 'grand theory'.
- Our responses to films are explained by ordinary cognitive and emotional capacities.
- Moderate moralism: a moral flaw in a work can be an aesthetic flaw when it prevents the uptake the work invites.
- Mass art is designed for accessibility to large audiences and deserves philosophical attention on its own terms.
Major works
- Mystifying Movies (1988)
- The Philosophy of Horror (1990)
- Post-Theory (1996, co-edited with David Bordwell)
- A Philosophy of Mass Art (1998)
In the conversation
- Debate Some films do philosophy that prose cannot, rather than illustrating it
- Question Is a brilliantly made propaganda film a great film, or only a skilful one?
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Noël Carroll takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 5.6 Art and Morality Can a beautiful work be evil, and still beautiful?
- 6.32 Philosophy of Film and Media How do images argue?