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This book charts the shape of future philosophical investigation by posing the question: "What is the Matrix?" Guided by the example of the Matrix film trilogy, the author examines issues ranging from simulation, proof and action to value, culture and mythology, offering a progressively deeper diagnosis of modern philosophical conditions. In contrast to the contemporary focus upon cognitive science and a commitment to the distinction between appearance and reality, this book helps readers to explore the argument that such abstractions are inevitably displaced by a more concrete distinction between dreaming and waking, with the Matrix as the real and only world we inhabit. Researchers and scholars will find this work an engaging and enlightening examination of reality, via the medium of popular culture and film.
List of contents
1. Chapter One: Introduction.- 2. Chapter Two: Are You Living In A Computer Simulation? (Level 0: The Level of Cognitive Science).- 3. Chapter Three: Are You A Brain In A Vat? (Level Of Logic: Level 1).- 4. Chapter Four: Introduction to the Parafinite (Level of the Parafinite: Level 2).- 5. Chapter Five: An Introduction To Paraphysics (Level of Paraphysics: Level 3).- 6. Chapter Six: An Introduction To Philosophical Praxis (Level of Philosophical Praxis: Level 4).- 7. Chapter Seven: An Introduction To Philosophia Perennis (Level Of Work On Myth and Philosophy: Level 5).
About the author
O. Bradley Bassler is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He is the author of
The Pace of Modernity: Reading with Blumenberg (2012) and
The Long Shadow of the Parafinite: Three Scenes from the Prehistory of a Concept (2015).
Summary
This book charts the shape of future philosophical investigation by posing the question: “What is the Matrix?” Guided by the example of the Matrix film trilogy, the author examines issues ranging from simulation, proof and action to value, culture and mythology, offering a progressively deeper diagnosis of modern philosophical conditions. In contrast to the contemporary focus upon cognitive science and a commitment to the distinction between appearance and reality, this book helps readers to explore the argument that such abstractions are inevitably displaced by a more concrete distinction between dreaming and waking, with the Matrix as the real and only world we inhabit. Researchers and scholars will find this work an engaging and enlightening examination of reality, via the medium of popular culture and film.
