This essay seeks to outline a way of understanding literature as philosophy as a justification for using fictive narrative to teach ethics. Some brief theoretical points are set out as well as two classroom examples.

In this essay I offer some suggestions for integrating film in an Ethics classes and reaching your goals in terms of learning and student outcomes. You can easily adapt them to other areas of Philosophy— not just Ethics. Starting with Aristotle’s Poetics as a tool for deconstructing movies, I set out five strategies for teaching Ethics through film: start with a film or ethical theory; start with a real-world case or an ethics code; then use any of these four in combination to allow for a more in-depth analysis. Each strategy is discussed with example exercises to illustrate how this approach can create an engaging class while achieving your goals.