Between Cognitivism and Deleuze:A "relativist" dialogue

<strong>JNU Philosophy Colloquium</strong> a lecture by <strong>Raghu Menon </strong> School of Communications, Media and Culture, University of Stirling, Scotland on <strong>Between Cognitivism and Deleuze:A "relativist" dialogue</strong> This paper offers a critical overview of two opposing schools of thought in contemporary film theory – Deleuzian film-philosophy and Cognitivism. Film studies have, by and large, moved on from the "grand theories" of Lacanian psychoanalysis and culturalism to explore novel ideas from disciplines as varied as neuroscience, phenomenology and evolutionary psychology. By embracing new possibilities, film theory has witnessed a confluence of ideas hitherto unseen in its history. Within this ever-diversifying conceptual sphere, the two most prominent strands remain in radical opposition. Cognitivism was born out of a desire to incorporate standards of scientific rigour into film theory. Though there are disagreements and diverging approaches within the movement, its proponents are united in advocating a purely empirical approach to the study of cinema. Initially influenced by the developments in cognitive psychology, the movement has expanded to include concepts from affective neuroscience, analytic philosophy and evolutionary psychology. As a result, a growing number of theorists from the humanities and sciences have joined the cognitivist fold in an attempt to engage an empirical study of the moving image. Analytic philosophy being the preferred philosophical approach in cognitivism, the works of continental philosophers such as Deleuze and Heidegger are discarded on account of being "inscrutable" or "unempirical", and any attempt to initiate a dialogue is often met with accusations of being "relativist". Nevertheless, in this paper, I will argue for such a relativist approach between cognitivism and the Bergson-inspired film-philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. I will begin by delineating the points of contention between the two branches, and then proceed to show how a dialogue between the two theoretical approaches can enhance the study of cinema, particularly in issues pertaining to narrative and cinematic time. Date : <strong>17th February 2016</strong>