Common sense seems to suggest that our desires and emotions sometimes drive us to do what we believe to be bad. You may have, for instance, at least once in your life said something hurtful to someone you love out of anger knowing that it was wrong to do so. The idea that we sometimes do what we believe is bad because of our desires and our feelings has been the prevailing explanation among philosophers for centuries. Yet, it is not the only explanation; there is at least one alternative. Plato argues that all people want what is good and no one, in fact, does what he or she thinks is bad. When we do bad things, he claims, we do it out of ignorance and confusion about what is good and what is bad. Philosophers have labeled this explanation "intellectualist" and I wish to offer some reasons for thinking that this intellectualist explanation is preferable to the prevailing view of why we sometimes do what we believe is bad.

Dr. Geoffrey Bagwell is an instructor of philosophy at Community Colleges of Spokane -- teaching several courses including the history of philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, critical thinking, symbolic logic, and philosophy of mind. Before coming to SCC, Geoffrey was a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and held various teaching appointments before then in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He earned a B.A. from the University of Oregon; an M.A. from St John's College; and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Duquesne University. He recently presented at the Gonzaga Philosophy Department Colloquium.

M. Night Shyamalan’s early films (from Wide Awake to Lady in the Water) are notable for the presence of spiritual themes such as faith, grace, and hope. While the perception of Shyamalan’s films is that they are thrillers with a twist, his most popular and successful films often raise questions of supernatural agency in the form of fate or even providence. This talk will examine these films and explore these themes in an effort to cast light on Shyamalan’s “project” in the earlier part of his career. This project certainly suggests that spiritual themes have not been “dropped out completely, in keeping with the secularism of the age.” Over against this is the apparent counterevidence of Shyamalan’s films beginning with The Happening, where spiritual themes seem notably absent. The lecture will consider this counterevidence and consider its implications for the view that Shyamalan’s oeuvre shows that there is still room for spiritual themes in popular films.