I watched it yesterday, definitely worth watching as it is highly introspective and entertaining in multiple ways. In terms of its contributions to a metaphysical discussion on the ontological nature of identity, that is really only addressed in the emphasis the movie places on the nature of identity being epistemological (i.e., it depends on your point of view/sense-making processes). It sort of reminds me of an idea I once had regarding single aspect monism with the focus of directed conscious attention being the perceptive and simultaneously apperceptive mass/gestalt (a complicated way of saying that on a purely experiential level of existence God is what you 'know'). I would say that the movie does not provide anything new to me in terms of understanding identity, but as a psychologist I have studied social psych pretty extensively, and most of the points made in the movie are well accounted for in the literature. However, as I'm sure any aesthetic would lobby, the provocative inquisition into identity in the movie was fairly moving; for something as cerebral as this it made me feel quite a bit. 

I would recommend this movie to most people I know. I don't think I spoiled anything, not that there's much to be spoiled, but you'll be glad you took the time to see this afterwards. 

Regards,

Nicholas G. Lattanzio, Psy.D.


On Sat, Dec 4, 2021 at 3:37 PM Chance McDermott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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I haven't seen the show yet but I'm interested in discussion about cultural identity from the ToK perspective.




On Fri, Dec 3, 2021 at 2:22 PM Peter Lloyd Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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Hi Greg, et.al.
In response to your question, in this film of a stage show by Derek DelGaudio, he explores people’s concept of identity, starting before his audience even leaves the lobby to enter the auditorium. As a stage production it requires the community of an audience to exist, so as a film we are shown his audiences as they participate with him. Its message is to question who we see ourselves as, who we see others as, and the inherent issues with labeling ourselves and others. For my interests, as you’ve likely already surmised, he is basically exploring Sartre’s concept of bad faith, a facet of which is labeling ourselves and others making everyone into narrowly defined inert objects—being-in-itself, rather than the ever nascent being-for-itself. 

Revealing DelGaudio's message is not a spoiler of the film, but sharing my opinion of his methods might be. I don’t want to put a weight of bias on how others might perceive the film. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has 100% rating from reviewers, and an 89% viewer rating, which is impressive for whatever it means

I’ve been reading up lately about cognitive bias as it is a psychological definition of Sartre’s concept of bad faith, which might be a remarkable bit of psychology by a philosopher, from back in the days when the two fields were actively sparring. Which reminds me to ask, do you consider yourself a practitioner of mathematical psychology?

Anyway, to get back to Derek DelGaudio’s film, I shared it because it reveals the power of rhetoric, slight of hand, and emotion within the context of cognitive bias and ontological identity. I saw the film as a weird demonstration, sort of like the Stanford Prison “Experiment", in this case where we were the audience to its audience.
Peter 

Peter Lloyd Jones
562-209-4080

Sent by determined causes that no amount of will is able to thwart. 




On Dec 3, 2021, at 6:12 AM, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

This did look interesting.
 
Peter, can you share a bit about the kinds of “ontological questions” this film raises? Magicians seem to manipulate our epistemological frames to make it appear as if our ontologies are flawed, but as you said, they are “lies,” in that there is no “real magic.” As such, I am now curious what the message is. If you don’t want to spoil it, no problem.

Best,
Gregg
 
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