The Film-Philosophies of Stanley Cavell and Gilles Deleuze

Dear Colleagues,

In the latter half of the 20^th century, philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Stanley Cavell developed parallel ideas on film’s distinct capacity for producing thought. Deleuze argues in his companion volumes Cinema 1 and 2 that film, far from reproducing reality, can generate new ways of relating to the world—not now through the creation of concepts (as philosophers might do), but by way of audiovisual experimentation. Likewise, Cavell argues in The World Viewed and subsequent texts that film does not and cannot ‘reproduce’ the world, but rather urges us to ask ‘what happens to reality when it is projected and screened.’ (Cavell 1979, 16) This, in turn, opens up ontological and existential questions to which each film is to give significance and fosters new links between ethics and aesthetics. Thus understood, films neither illustrate pre-existing ideas nor do they provide answers to questions; they inspire, in Cavell’s words, ‘directions to answers, ways to think’ (Cavell 1983, 92).

In their approach to film and media, Deleuze and Cavell thus postulate intrinsic connections between theory and practice, philosophy and criticism. Each demonstrates how the force of thought emerges from specific films or scenes, from the singular use of cinematic or narrative techniques. At the same time, their works on cinema are embedded in their philosophical oeuvres at large, and are best understood in the context of (and as contributions to) Deleuze and Cavell’s respective takes on time and skepticism, as well as on their philosophies of the event (Deleuze) and the ordinary (Cavell).

While Deleuze and Cavell’s respective influence continues to grow across the Atlantic and indeed globally, and their texts on cinema are by now considered seminal works in the field of film-philosophy, their ideas have only in exceptional cases been brought to bear on one another productively. Doing so has become all the more pertinent given the radical changes the media landscape has undergone since the publication of their writings on (analog) film. The rise of quality TV-series and the emergence of digital media, including computer- and AI-generated images and writing, not only call for a new conceptions of art (as both Deleuze and Cavell already announced in the 1980s); they push ontological, epistemological, and ethical issues to the point that they ask us to consider whether we are facing, or ought to produce, a new ‘world view’ (Cavell) or ‘image of thought’ (Deleuze). Some important research in this context has been done in Germany (e.g. Fruchtl, Engell), while in the English-speaking world, the books of D.N. Rodowick and Robert Sinnerbrink stand out. This special issue of Philosophies, edited by Jeroen Gerrits (Binghamton University, SUNY) and Sandra Laugier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne), seeks to explore generative conjunctions and differences between Cavell and Deleuze’s transversal thought in light of this changing media landscape, with a focus on the pertinence of their works on film and media for philosophy.

Within these parameters, we welcome original research articles and reviews on areas that may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Cinema & thought: how does film as a medium give expression to philosophical ideas such as skepticism (Cavell) or time (Deleuze), and/or how do individual works give significance to these medium-specific expressions? Can film produce new forms of thought, as Deleuze argues, and has it continued to do so since the 21^st century?
• Film & reality: How does the experience of film inspire ontological questions about the nature of reality and existence? Does the impact of the digital and AI on cinema offer new insights into our (mediated) relations to the world, perhaps in ways unforeseeable to Deleuze and Cavell?
• Ethics & aesthetics: Despite the privileged relation photographic film bears to reality, both Deleuze and Cavell argue that cinema turns questions of knowledge and ocular proof into moral concerns. How may filmic genres, styles, or experiments provoke ethical questions?
• The ordinary & the event: Cinema and television intersect with philosophies of the ordinary (Cavell) and of the event (Deleuze), for example, by engaging with (ruptures of) the familiar or the everyday. How do these media help us rethink dynamic relations between them?

We request that, before submitting a manuscript, interested authors must first submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it (along with a 1-paragraph bio) by September 1, 2025, to the guest editors (jgerrits@binghamton.edu) or to /Philosophies/ editorial office (philosophies@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

List of the references

Cavell, Stanley. The World Viewed : Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Enl. ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.

--- “The Thought of Movies” (1983), in: Stanley Cavell, and William Rothman. Cavell on Film. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.

Deleuze, Gilles. The Movement-Image. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

--- Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.

Engell, Lorenz. Thinking through Television. Translated by Anthony Enns. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019.

Früchtl, Josef. Trust in the World: A Philosophy of Film. Translated by Sarah L. Kirkby. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Rodowick, D.N. Philosophy’s Artful Conversation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2015.

Sinnerbrink, Robert. Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; Routledge, 2016.

Dr. Jeroen Gerrits
Prof. Dr. Sandra Laugier
Guest Editors

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• philosophies of film and media
• Stanley Cavell
• Gilles Deleuze
• cinema
• time
• skepticism