Document Type : Original Research Paper
Authors
1
Assistant Professor at Department of Media Arts, IRIB University, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Philosophy, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/isih.2026.5703.5272
Abstract
This article examines the philosophical potential of Black Mirror as a narrative medium for generating cinematic thought experiments—experiments that do not unfold merely through abstract reasoning, but rather through layered storytelling, visual form, and the viewer’s affective involvement. The central focus lies on those episodes that construct what moral philosophy has termed boundary situations (Grenzsituationen): moments of existential disorientation, collapse of meaning, and the urgent need for ethical choice under extreme conditions. Drawing on key concepts from existential philosophy (Jaspers, Heidegger), contemporary virtue ethics (Nussbaum), and the phenomenology of alterity (Levinas), the paper argues that episodes such as White Bear (2013), Be Right Back (2013), White Christmas (2014), and Nosedive (2016) are not merely representations of moral crises, but immersive ethical experiences. These episodes place the viewer within the ethical dilemma itself, transforming them from passive observer to engaged moral agent—one who undergoes the cognitive and emotional tensions proper to such ethical encounters. As a result, the viewer is prompted to reflect on the contours of moral experience in liminal situations while also cultivating their own moral imagination and affective responsiveness. Methodologically, the article employs philosophical-narrative analysis, focusing on the interplay between moral imagination, audiovisual storytelling, and the affective-cognitive responses of the viewer.
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