Shai Biderman, Dr.
Dr. Shai Biderman (PhD, Philosophy; Boston University, 2012) is an Assistant Professor for film and philosophy at Beit-Berl College and Tel Aviv University (Israel). He is the co-editor of The Philosophy of David Lynch (UPK, 2011), Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image (Walflower/Columbia, 2016) and Plato and the Moving Image (Brill, 2019). He published numerous articles and book chapters in film-philosophy and philosophy of film, on filmmakers (such as David Lynch, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Soderbergh, the Coen Brothers, the Marx brothers, and Errol Morris) and on various films and TV shows (such as Gone baby, Gone, Lost, Family Guy, South Park, Twin Peaks, and Black Mirror).
His publications appear in journals such as Film and Philosophy, Cinema: journal of philosophy and the moving image, Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Arts, Slil: Online Journal for History, Film and Television (Hebrew) and Takriv (Close Up): Online magazine for discussion and critique of documentary film (Hebrew) and in edited volumes such as Inter- Art Journey (Sussex Academic Press, 2015), Talking About Evil, Psychoanalytic, social, and cultural perspectives (Routledge, 2017), The Philosophy of the Western (UPK, 2010), The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film (UPK, 2008), The Philosophy of Steven Soderbergh (UPK, 2011), Lost and Philosophy (Blackwell, 2008), The Philosophy of The Coen Brothers (2009) and Movies and the Meaning of Life (Open Court, 2005).
Peer-reviewed papers
- Biderman, S. (2008). “Recalling the self: personal identity in total recall”. In S. M. Sanders (Ed.). The philosophy of science fiction film (pp. 39-54). Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
- Biderman, S. (2010). “Do not forsake me my darling: Loneliness and solitude in the Westerns”. In J. L. McMahon & B. S. Csaki (Eds.), The Philosophy of the Western (pp. 13-29). Kentucky, Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
- Biderman, S., & W. Devlin (2012). “Sartre’s existential analysis of moral dilemmas through Gone Baby Gone”. Film and Philosophy, 6, 70-81.
- Biderman, S. (2014). “Into the Wild (West): Philosophy and Cinematic Mythmaking”. Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Arts, 9 (2), 53-62.
- Biderman, S. (2014). “A Night at the Opera of Talmudic Reasoning: The “Jewishness” of Jewish Cinema”. Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image, 4, 14-27.
- Biderman, S. (2015). “Film as Philosophy: the Case of Thought Experiments”. In N. Yaari and E. Rozik (Eds.), Inter-art journey: exploring the common grounds of the arts (pp. 121-136). Brighton ; Chicago, Sussex Academic Press.
- Biderman, S., & I. Lewit (2017). “TV’s Fargo and the Philosophy of the Coen Brothers”. Film and Philosophy 21: 17-30
- Biderman, S. (2017). Truth, reality, and fiction in the documentary of Errol Morris: Refiguring Platonism in epistemology and aesthetics. Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Arts, 12(2), 58-64.
- Biderman, S. (2017). “A Touch of Evil: Cinematic Perspectives”. In R. Lazar (Ed.), Talking About Evil, Psychoanalytic, social, and cultural perspectives (pp. 164-180). New York: Routledge.
- Biderman, S. (2021). “A Serious Man as Philosophy: The Elusiveness of Moral Knowledge”. The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy. D. K. Johnson ed., Palgrave.
- Biderman, S. (2021). “Between Delight and Discomfort: The Act of Mirroring in the Age of Black Mirror”. Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror. D. Shaw, K. Marshall and J. Rocha eds., Bloomsbury.
- Biderman, S. and M. Weinman (2022). “Symbiosis, Interruption, and Exchange: Parasite after Serres’s The Parasite”. Parasite: A Philosophical Exploration: On the film Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho. T. Botz-Bornstein and G. Stamatellos eds., Brill.
Edited books
- Biderman, S., & Devlin, W. (Eds.) (2011). The Philosophy of David Lynch. Kentucky, Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
- Biderman, S. & Lewit, I. (Eds.) (2016). Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image. London & New York: Wallflower Press (an imprint of Columbia University Press).
- Biderman, S., & Wienman, M. (Eds.). (2019). Plato and the Moving Image. Leiden: Brill.
Books
Biderman, S. (upcoming 2025). The Ethics of the Coen Brothers. McFarland.