Matrix and Philosophy, The by Irwin Editor William

Author:Irwin, Editor,William [Irwin, Editor,William]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 2003-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

Scene 4

* * *

Virtual Themes

13

Notes from Underground: Nihilism and The Matrix

THOMAS S. HIBBS

From The Terminator to A.I., from philosophical debates about whether terms such as “soul” and “consciousness” should be relegated to “folk psychology,” to political debates over the ethics of cloning, preoccupation with the nature and implications of technology shapes both low and high culture in contemporary America.

In the 1999 movie The Matrix, the concerns and interests of low and high culture merge. The Matrix has everything—an intriguing and intellectually ambitious plot, postmodern echoes of classic fairy tales, special effects that set a new standard for science-fiction films, and expertly choreographed and technically sophisticated martial-arts fight sequences. Yet, both in its plot and its philosophical musings, The Matrix draws upon themes and debates that predate the current fascination with technology and artificial intelligence. In a number of ways, The Matrix replays old debates about Enlightenment modernity.1 The Enlightenment commitment to the mastery of nature through technological progress risks the degradation of humanity, just as an imprudent celebration of individual freedom paradoxically courts a homogenization of all mankind. In these and other ways, liberal modernity is seen as a potential source of nihilism, a human existence void of any ultimate purpose or fundamental meaning, where the great questions and animating quests that inspired humanity in previous ages would cease to register in the human soul.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.