-----Original Message----- From: Michael Chase <goya@xxxxxxx> Sent: Oct 23, 2004 5:28 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions Le 22 oct. 04, =E0 19:36, Robert Paul a =E9crit : > I want to thank Mike Chase for pointing out to me the philosophical=20 > issues which > I hadn't seen before in the Matrix. I really hadn't thought of it, the=20= > film, in > that way, no doubt because I was caught up the leather and special=20 > effects. M.C. There are arguably quite a few more. At=20 http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/phi.html, one may find=20 essays on philosophy in the matrix by people well over the age of 21,=20 like David Chalmers, John Patridge, , Hubert & Stephen Dreyfus, and=20 others. I particularly liked Colin McGinn's "The Matrix of dreams". I think it's rather hard to deny that the Matrix creators had = Hilary=20 Putnam's "Brain in a vat" thought-experiment right from the start (see=20= Christopher Grau's paper on the site given above). But it also may have=20= been influence by the thought experiment described in Robert Nozick's=20 Anarchy, State, and Utopia. The Experience Machine lets us plug our=20 brain into a computer programmed to make us think we are living=20 whatever we take to be the best possible life. When plugged in, the=20 life we think we are living is a computer-induced dream. Nozick asks=20 (p. 43) : "Would you plug in? What else can matter to us, other than=20 how our lives feel from the inside=A0?" A.A. This can also apply to taking drugs. When high, the life we think we are living is a drug-induced dream. Nothing matters to drug addicts other than how their lives feel from the inside. I would argue that even without drugs, we don't need to be plugged into a computer to care about how our lives feel from the inside. As regular, non-drug taking people we all manipulate our external life to soothe our internal life. Without internal homeostasis, there is nothing. Just the act of living life is a philosophical journey. Andy Amago Michael Chase (goya@xxxxxxxxxxx) CNRS UPR 76 7, rue Guy Moquet Villejuif 94801 France ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html