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The Matrix & Philosophy

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The Matrix & Philosophy
The Matrix and Philosophy
Welcome to the
Desert of the Real

Edited by

WILLIAM IRWIN

For Peter H. Hare,
Morpheus to many

Contents

Introduction: Meditations on The Matrix

1

Scene 1
How Do You Know?

3

1.
2.
3.
4.

Computers, Caves, and Oracles: Neo and Socrates
WILLIAM IRWIN
Skepticism, Morality, and The Matrix
GERALD J. ERION and BARRY SMITH

16

The Matrix Possibility
DAVID MITSUO NIXON

28

Seeing, Believing, Touching, Truth
CAROLYN KORSMEYER

41

Scene 2
The Desert of the Real
5.
6.

7.
8.

5

53

The Metaphysics of The Matrix
JORGE J.E. GRACIA and JONATHAN J. SANFORD

55

The Machine-Made Ghost: Or, The Philosophy of
Mind, Matrix Style
JASON HOLT

66

Neo-Materialism and the Death of the Subject
DANIEL BARWICK

75

Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge
THEODORE SCHICK, JR.

87

iii

iv

Contents

Scene 3
Down the Rabbit Hole of Ethics and Religion
9.
10.

11.
12.

There Is No Spoon: A Buddhist Mirror
MICHAEL BRANNIGAN

101

The Religion of The Matrix and the Problems of Pluralism
GREGORY BASSHAM

111

Happiness and Cypher’s Choice: Is Ignorance Bliss?
CHARLES L. GRISWOLD, JR.

126

We Are (the) One! Kant Explains How to Manipulate the Matrix
JAMES LAWLER

138

Scene 4
Virtual Themes
13.
14.

15.
16.

18.

153

Notes from Underground: Nihilism and The Matrix
THOMAS S. HIBBS

155

Popping a Bitter Pill: Existential Authenticity in
The Matrix and Nausea
JENNIFER L. MCMAHON

166

The Paradox of Real Response to Neo-Fiction
SARAH E. WORTH

178

Real Genre and Virtual Philosophy
DEBORAH KNIGHT and GEORGE MCKNIGHT

Scene 5
De-Construct-Ing The Matrix
17.

99

188

203

Penetrating Keanu: New Holes, but the Same Old Shit
CYNTHIA FREELAND

205

The Matrix, Marx, and the Coppertop’s Life
MARTIN A. DANAHAY AND DAVID RIEDER

216

Contents

20.

The Matrix Simulation and the Postmodern Age
DAVID


References: Originally, Simulacres et simulation (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1981). Available in English as Simulations (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983) 66–71, 123-126 as well as Baudrillard’s The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
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