Philosophical debate on

2001: A Space Odyssey

FEDERICO CORCOS

Research methods in Analytic philosophy

 Abstract

Many consider it one of the most important movies in the history of cinema, certainly the most
emblematic of the science fiction genre; Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is one of the most
philosophical movies of the twentieth century. 2001: A Space Odyssey raises many themes that can
all be gathered within a big question: what is the destiny of the human being?

In this paper I will address some philosophical themes of the movie, which can be read with a
Nietzschean interpretation: in fact, the allusion that Kubrick himself makes when he chooses the
main musical motif of the movie is not even accidental1.

Plot

We can divide the movie into three parts: The dawn of man; Jupiter mission; Jupiter and beyond
the infinite.

1.1 The dawn of man

One day, upon awakening, the hominids discover a black monolith, of unknown origin. This is
perfectly polished in an unnatural way, at a time when the species that has not yet made itself
human cannot in any way produce it artificially. By touching this monolith the monkeys come to a
state of intelligence higher than the other species, they discover the technique, in particular, in one
of the most famous scenes, a monkey grabbed a bone and discovers that it can be used as a weapon
of attack and defense. This bone is then thrown into the air as a sign of victory and conquest.

The launched bone causes a leap of almost 4 million years: now a spaceship traveling in space
appears on the scene. Inside it travels the scientist Heywood Floyd who heads to the moon. He has
the mission to uncover the mystery of a monolith found there. When they land on the moon, he and
a group of scientists approach the monolith and touch it. However, this time the monolith emits a
deafening beep to Jupiter.

1
This is Thus spoke Zarathustra by Strauss; evidently Kubrick is inspired by the work of the German philosopher.
 1.2 Jupiter Mission

In 2001 a spacecraft heads towards Jupiter. There are five crew members in command, including
Bowman and Pole. The ship is equipped with an on-board supercomputer, HAL 9000, which can
hear, see and communicate. Shortly before reaching the mission goal, HAL 9000 notices a non-
existent failure that threatens to compromise the journey. At that point Bowman and Pole plan to
disconnect him; HAL reading their lips discovers a threat, for self-preservation decides to kill all
the crew members except Bowman who manages to disconnect him. Then a recording is
transmitted: the real mission is to investigate the acoustic signal launched by the black monolith on
the moon.

1.3 Jupiter and Beyond The Infinite

When the ship reaches Jupiter, a monolith appears in space. Crossing it, the protagonist
experiences a journey with his own eyes, almost psychedelic, between the nebulae and the stars.
Eventually Bowman appears in a white room, a mirror reveals his wrinkled appearance and after a
while he sees himself aged on his deathbed. The monolith emerges again, Bowman stretches his
finger to try to touch it but turns into a fetus, a child floating in the universe.

Philosophical analysis of the movie. Nietzsche's metamorphoses: the camel,

the lion, the child

Bowman's journey is described either as a slow and progressive acquisition of consciousness and
self-awareness. This individual consciousness is a metaphor for the answer to the question "what is
the destiny of man"? It is a journey towards the attainment of the condition of the Overman.
Analyzing the movie we could mention the three metamorphoses that Nietzsche describes in his
work Also Spracht Zarathustra: the camel, the lion and the child2.

At the beginning the man/hominid is a camel, a beast subjugated by the weight of his life and
tradition, bends before it and before God. The humps bear the weight, the pain and sacrifice of life
in the sense of the phrase "You must"; it is an obedient man who must obey. The humps are also the
dogmas and superstitions of an archaic mind that standing toward the sight of what it does not
understand (the monolith) abandons itself to religious dances and rites and total reverence; in the
face of the mysteries of the world invokes the presence of a superior intellect or a divine creator.
Screaming and jumping, the monkeys praise with bliss the mysterious object that appears. It is the
symbolic creation of the gods by man, the rise of human faith in something sacred to which to

2
Cfr. Nietzsche Thus spoke Zarathistra, pp. 24-25-26.
entrust the meaning of existence. The monolith is the spark of the progress, it activates the
evolutionary mechanism from which the human species originates. Hominids understand, after
touching it, that they can manipulate nature, exploit it to their advantage: they discover the
technique. The bone is the prototype of a technological artifact. 3 This bone is thrown into the air, as
it falls evolves into the last of human creations: a spaceship.

We have reached the stage of human history dominated by the Apollonian spirit. Man became a
lion. However, evolution is still taking place and once again everything starts from the black
monolith found on the moon. This time, however, the attitude with which man relates to it, changes.
The astronauts who are in his presence are no longer hominids dazzled by divine light, but are men
of science guided by reason. The monolith no longer arouses feelings of devotion, but the
awareness of the dominion of those who investigate the unknown through scientific research. Man
frees himself from the burdens of metaphysics, from ethical commitments, he no longer has to bear
the power of God, he is strong and his words say "I want".

Technical innovation has allowed man to transfer the excellence of human rationality outside the
boundaries of the species, on a technological device to be venerated as a perfect and infallible deity.
HAL 9000 the on-board supercomputer that speaks and observes and regulates the mission assigned
to astronauts sent to Jupiter. The irrational belief in cosmic entities has been replaced by faith in
progress. Religious idols and the divine intellect have been replaced by another mind: the artificial
intelligence of a conscious machine. The wrong information that HAL communicates therefore
determines the failure and collapse of enlightenment hopes. It is the end of the hegemony of the
machine over man, of technology over feeling, of the exasperated reason of the Apollonian over the
primordial instinctiveness of the Dionysian. Bowman does not hesitate to get rid of the machine.
The death of HAL 9000 is a slow exhaustion of vital strengths, a maneuver of weakening and
cancellation, the mental faculties of artificial intelligence regress, retracing backwards the stages of
evolution, from intellectual maturity to the moments of birth. As the man advances, the machine
goes back. Here is the transition to a new phase of human history: the news that other life forms
have been discovered on Jupiter. Once the religious and scientific idols have been killed, the
transvaluation of values is complete: man is left with man.

The world must be reinterpreted. In the journey just made, the spaceship floats in space like a
sperm in the fluid of a mother's uterus: images that allude to human fertilization and that prepare
man for a rebirth. At the end of the mental path among the stars and the nebulae that explode and
3
In the climate of the Cold War experienced by Kubrick in the years of making the film, the dominion over practical
knowledge and the monopoly on technologically advanced knowledge they defined the power relations between states.
So also for monkeysand possessing the most advanced means prevailing over the other, it means appropriating a source
of water that is life.
merge, Bowman, who had arrived in the white room, has come out of that tunnel as a being who
feels and thinks in a new way, abandons himself to the mystery without the need to understand it. In
the room Bowman is enraptured by his own image reflected on a mirror, he appears with a wrinkled
face, subsequently his last incarnation is his self lying on his deathbed. The monolith comes to
announce a final evolutionary goal.

It is the Nietzschean man who loves his own life; desires every moment; renounces the search
for the meaning of life outside of himself, renounces in seeking it in religion and science. Bowman's
dying body now gives way to a fetus, a transformed creature which is eternally a child, the
Overman rises. First camel, then lion, now child. The Nietzschean child has come to life, the child
in his instinctiveness reintroduces into the human the disposition of Dionysian irrationality, a spirit
that assimilates man to a free and playful infant. A creature that is before morality, has not yet had
an education that has given it the ethical division of the world, the child is "free to", he is free to do,
he is chaos, creative will, invents himself and the world.

His gaze enjoys the charm of the unknown. For Nietzsche childhood is purity of feelings and
wonder, it is rejoicing in the unanswered questions (the very essence of philosophy).

The last transformation leads man to be the only human creature anchored to the present, unable
to project himself towards the future (the place where narratives of life and death arise and
questions find solutions). The child lives in a suspended dimension, not supported by the
foundations of moral systems, it is realized in tears and laughter. The "starchild" goes towards the
monolith, the two bodies converge and the fetus rises to the level of the planets and dominates the
galaxy, Strauss' music resonates triumphantly. The intergalactic journey was like the Odyssey of
Ulysses who crossed the abyss chasing dreams of knowledge and finally returned, triumphant to the
beloved Ithaca, like Bowman who, in the dance of a rising star, is preparing to return home, to
planet earth.

The space odyssey thus comes to an end.

Bibliography

-Carlotta Di Raimondo, Carlotta Failla, 2001: A Space Odyssey - a Nietzschean Analysis, 2021.

-Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus spoke Zarathustra, (editor Bill Chapko), 2010.

-Kubrick, Stanley, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.

-Saudino, Matteo, Cinema e filosofia: 2001 Odissea nello spazio e Nietzsche. 2017.

(821) Cinema and Philosophy: 2001 A Space Odyssey and Nietzsche - YouTube