Menu
Donate
SIGN IN
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!

Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.

What would Sartre make of the footballer who stood by his decision to kick a fan?

The most infamous kick of the French footballer Eric Cantona’s accomplished career wasn’t a game-winning goal, but rather an airborne attack on a fan who was shouting abuse at him during a match in 1995. When asked to reflect on the incident some two decades later, Cantona stated: ‘I love it and I don’t regret it … I am not a role model … I am just a human being with emotion.’ This short animation from the Illustrated Philosopher series – written by Nigel Warburton, consultant senior editor at Aeon – ponders whether Cantona proved himself an unlikely existentialist by refusing to succumb to the pressure to express contrition.

Writer and Narrator: Nigel Warburton

Animation: Cognitive Media

23 November 2020
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone

Make a donation

Get Aeon straight to your inbox

Join our newsletter
Eliminative materialism | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no

5 minutes

Eleonore Stump on the problem of evil | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of religion

How a devout Catholic philosopher approaches the problem of evil

8 minutes

Drawings of my BF | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

Our ark | Aeon
Save

video

Thinkers and theories

Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?

13 minutes

Ndagukunda déjà (I love you, already) | Aeon
Save

video

Family life

In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy

21 minutes

The diver | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea

9 minutes

Three ways to think about free will | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

We may never settle the ‘free will’ debate, but tapping into it is still worthwhile

32 minutes

Still life | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

An enigmatic ‘story of consciousness’ told through 19th-century engravings

7 minutes

Ain’t no time for women | Aeon
Save

video

Politics and government

Join the spirited debate at a women’s hair salon before a pivotal election in Tunisia

19 minutes