History Research Paper

Our one paper for the semester in History class can be on anything we'd like- provided it relates to something we've covered in lecture. We all shared the ideas for our papers during class last week, lots of Renaissance and Baroque topics - theater, chateaus, etc. I decided to go a different route.



I'm writing about the movie Moon (Duncan Jones / Sam Rockwell) and how the works of German philosopher Martin Heidegger would prove or disprove the existence of the main character, Sam Bell, within his lunar habitat. Heidegger believed that existence is based on location. Human beings exist between the Earth and the sky. If you're not between the Earth and sky, you do not exist. This is different from someone like Descartes, for whom existence was based on the ability to think. If you have a brain in your head, you exist.

Back to Heidegger, after we've established our existence between the Earth and the sky, we must "dwell" - that is provide ourselves protection from the elements, in order to sustain existence. Sam Bell exists not between the Earth and the sky - but in outer space, in a lunar dwelling. What other philosophical Heideggerian paths will Sam travel to determine his existence?



watch the trailer here