Noël Carroll (born 1947) is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

philosophy of art Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

. Although Carroll is best known for his work in the

philosophy of film The philosophy of film is a branch of aesthetics within the discipline of philosophy that seeks to understand the most basic questions about film. Philosophy of film has significant overlap with film theory, a branch of film studies. History The ...

(he is a proponent of cognitive film theory), he has also published

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

, works on philosophy of art generally, theory of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, and also philosophy of history. As of 2012, he is a

distinguished professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

of philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Education

*B.A., Philosophy, Hofstra University, 1969 *M.A., Philosophy,

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, 1970 *M.A., Cinema Studies,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, 1974 *M.A., Philosophy,

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, Chicago Circle, 1976 *Ph.D., Cinema Studies, New York University, 1976 (thesis title: "An In-Depth Analysis of Buster Keaton's ''The General''") *Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, 1983

Career

Carroll holds

PhDs A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in both cinema studies and philosophy. From 1972–1988, he worked as a journalist covering film, theater, performance, and fine art for publications such as the ''Chicago Reader'', ''Artforum'', ''In These Times'', ''Dance Magazine'', ''

SoHo Weekly News The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (also called the ''SoHo News'') was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018). History The first issue was published on ...

'' and ''The Village Voice''. Many of these early articles have been collected in his 2011 book ''Living in an Artworld''. He has also written five documentaries. Perhaps his most popular and influential book is ''The Philosophy of Horror, or, Paradoxes of the Heart'' (1990), an examination of the

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

(in novels, stories, radio and film). As noted in the book's introduction, Carroll wrote ''Paradoxes of the Heart'' in part to convince his parents that his lifelong fascination with horror fiction was not a waste of time. Another important book by Carroll is ''Mystifying Movies'' (1988), a critique of the ideas of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and the

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

of Roland Barthes, which has been credited with inspiring a shift away from what Carroll describes as the "psycho-semiotic Marxism" that had dominated

film studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies. ...

and film theory in American universities since the 1970s. Carroll was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 for his research in philosophy of dance. He was named sixth-most influential philosopher of art since 1945 by the

Philosophical Gourmet Report The Philosophical Gourmet Report (also known as the Leiter Report or PGR), founded by philosophy and law professor Brian Leiter and now edited by philosophy professors Berit Brogaard and Christopher Pynes, is a ranking of graduate programs in phi ...

Positions

*Monroe C. Beardsley Professor of Philosophy at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

*Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

*Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center *Former president of the American Society for Aesthetics

Works

Carroll is the author of more than one hundred articles and other works:

Books

Monographs

*''Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory'', Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988. *''Mystifying Movies: Fads and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory'', New York, Columbia University Press, 1988. *''The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart'', New York, Routledge, 1990. *''Theorizing The Moving Image'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996. *''A Philosophy of Mass Art'', New York, Oxford University Press, 1998. *''Interpreting The Moving Image'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998. *''Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction'', New York, Routledge, 1999. *''Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001. *''Engaging The Moving Image'', New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003. *''Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor and Bodily Coping'', Malden, Blackwell Publishing, 2007. *''The Philosophy of Motion Pictures'', Malden, Blackwell Publishing, 2008. *''On Criticism'', London, Routledge, 2009. *''Art in Three Dimensions'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010. *''Narrative, Emotion, and Insight'', with John Gibson, Penn State University Press, 2011. *''Living in an Artworld: Reviews and Essays on Dance, Performance, Theater, and the Fine Arts in the 1970s and 1980s'', Louisville, KY: Chicago Spectrum Press, 2012. *''Humour: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. *''Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Literature'', with John Gibson, Routledge, 2016. *''Arthur Danto’s Philosophy of Art: Essays'', Boston, Brill, 2021. *''Classics in the Philosophy of Art'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, in preparation.

Edited volumes

*''Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies'' (edited with David Bordwell), Madison,

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and p ...

, 1996. *''Theories of Art Today'', Madison,

, 2000. *''Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures'' (edited with Jinhee Choi), Malden, Blackwell Publishing, 2006. *''Philosophy in the Twilight Zone'' (edited with Lester Hunt), Oxford, Blackwell, 2009. *''The Poetics, Aesthetics and Philosophy of Narrative'' (edited with an introduction by Noël Carroll), Oxford, Blackwell, 2009.

Selected articles

*''Hume's Standard of Taste'', The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Winter, 1984), pp.181-194

References

Sources

* Mario Slugan, ''Noël Carroll and Film: A Philosophy of Art and Popular Culture''. Bloomsbury, 2019.

External links

Phil Papers

Carroll's archive on the CUNY Philosophy Commons
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Noel 1947 births 20th-century American educators 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American historians 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century educational theorists 21st-century American educators 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American historians 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century educational theorists American art critics American cultural critics American dance critics American educational theorists American ethicists American film critics American film historians American journalists American literary theorists American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American mass media scholars American music theorists American philosophy academics American theater critics Analytic philosophers Communication theorists Critics of postmodernism Graduate Center, CUNY faculty Film theorists Humor researchers Living people Mass media theorists Media critics Metaphor theorists Moral philosophers Phenomenologists Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of history Philosophers of literature Philosophers of social science Philosophy teachers Philosophy writers Social critics Social philosophers Trope theorists Theorists on Western civilization