Film Studies and the Philosophy of Science: Bordwellian Paradigms and Marxist Quarrels

Abstract

The current paper is an intervention in the history of film theory, which I demonstrate requires insights from the historiography and philosophy of science. The paper is divided into three sections. Firstly, I show that recent attempts to historicize film theory misapprehend crucial terms and approaches lifted from the philosophy of science. Secondly, I address Thomas S. Kuhn’s notion of paradigm-shift, and how it can be reconciled to Stephen Toulmin’s rival, genealogical theories. Thirdly, I redeploy the arguments and terms derived from Kuhn-Toulmin to assess a little-known dispute in the history of the field, between David Bordwell and Andrew Britton. In doing so, I equally argue how to best characterize disciplinary differences in film studies at large. Finally, in conclusion, some speculations are offered as to whether film studies can be animated by any one aim or objective.

Keywords

• epistemology
• film theory
• David Bordwell
• Andrew Britton
• classical cinema
• Stephen Toulmin