The Cinematic Representation of Reality in Two Approaches Phenomenology and Metaphysics

The relationship between representation and reality has been the matter of concern to the philosophers all the passage of time. In general, with the rise of metaphysical thought and Idea theory in Greece, the absence of reality of the world in the human sight has been accepted; moreover, gradually Epistemology got the priority to Ontology and so, representation was considered as a necessity to face the reality. At the same time, the meaning of Art was also changed from the concept of Poesis, accompanied with Aletheia to the concept of Mimesis and separation of Aletheia. In this article, the cinematic representation, as an artistic media is studied from the perspectives of Ontology and Epistemology on the one hand and in the face of two historical-intellectual paradigms on the other hand, including: Presence or phenomenological knowledge, and metaphysical paradigms. As a matter of importance, in this article, only that part of representation has been taken into consideration that is related to reality. Theorizing about the cinematic representation is dependent to the ontological and epistemological foundations. The cinema ontology is to answer this question: whether the cinematic representation is related to the real world or is an independent world itself that is connected with the audience’s mind? In the cinema epistemology, the amount of reality perception is the matter of consideration. The research is based on the structuralistic methods, taking Heidegger’s theories. According to Heidegger, in every historical period, there is a special appearance of “Being”. He believed in three major periods in the thought history. The first: before the era of Socrates and Plato that “Being” was considered present in the human world. The second: the traditional metaphysic, beginning with Plato and continuing to medieval ages. The third: the modern metaphysic, beginning with Cartesian doubt and continuing to Husserl. As a matter of notification, in this article, the second and third periods considered as the metaphysical periods. The study shows that Cinema from the phenomenological approach and taking the ontological status has got the enough potential to make the reality be perceived immediately by the audience; whereas in the metaphysical approach, cinema keeps the representational and subjective status.