Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror

Kingsley Marshall is Head of Film & Television at the CILECT accredited School of Film & Television, and a member of the project team at the Sound/Image Cinema Lab, both based at Falmouth University, UK. James Rocha is Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fresno, USA.

• Introduction: Charlie Brooker’s Artistic VisionKingsley Marshall (Falmouth University, UK) & James Rocha (California State University: Fresno, USA) Section One: Is Black Mirror Philosophy?Chapter One: Through a Screen Darkly: Black Mirror, Thought Experiments, and Televisual PhilosophyRobert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University, AustraliaChapter Two: Black Mirror as Philosophizing About Immortality, Technology and Human Nature Lorraine Yeung, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, and Kong-Ngai Pei, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Chapter Three: Technology in Pastel Colors: An Alternative Take on Black MirrorLaura di Summa, William Paterson University, USA Chapter Four: The Virtue of Forgetting in Nietzsche’s Philosophy and Black Mirror Daniel Shaw, Emeritus Professor Lock Haven University, USA Section Two: Versions of the Self in Black Mirror Chapter Five: Free Will in ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ Sander Lee, Keene State College, USA Chapter Six: ‘White Christmas’: Technologies of the Self in the Digital Age Diana Stypinska, Liverpool Hope University, U.K. and Andrea Rossi, Koç University (Istanbul), Turkey Chapter Seven: You Were Never Really Here: Representations of Artificial Intelligence in Charlie Brooker’s Black MirrorKingsley Marshall, Falmouth University, UKSection Three: Black Mirror and Relating to OthersChapter Eight: ‘Crocodile’ Going Too Far: Philosophical Reflections on Human Nature and Moral Character Clara Nisley, Oglethorpe University, USA Chapter Nine: Rats, Roaches, and Rapists: ‘Men Against Fire’ and the Propagation of PropagandaLeigh Rich, Georgia Southern University, USA Chapter Ten: “Between Delight and Discomfort”: The Act of Mirroring in the Age of Black Mirror Shai Biderman, Tel Aviv University, IsraelChapter Eleven: The You They Love: Patriarchal Feminism and Ashley TooMona Rocha and James Rocha, California State University: Fresno, USAConclusionJames Rocha (California State University: Fresno, USA) & Kingsley Marshall (Falmouth University, UK)

Black Mirror is a series that looks at society through the lens of science fiction, and these stories emotionally affect the audience when they can relate to them in a human way. The best episodes of Black Mirror draw from a fertile ground of ideas already in the ether, and are there to leave us feeling uncomfortable and thinking a little bit harder about the way we live, how we live, and the way we communicate. That’s the place where drama crosses with philosophy.