Matrix and Philosophy Welcome to the Desert of the Real

The choice is yours, and you'll have to live with the consequences for at least the rest of your life. Will you take the blue pill-put this book back on the shelf and go on thinking of The Matrix as just a movie? Or will you take the red pill-read this book, and find out just how far down the rabbit-hole goes? Is the world around us truly as it appears or are we inert bodies in tanks, our brains electronically stimulated to create a make-believe world which is all we know? This old philosophical puzzle has become cutting-edge cool with the appearance of the Keanu Reeves cult sci-fi movie, The Matrix. The Matrix is the most philosophical film ever made, every step of its fast-paced plot pivoting on a philosophical conundrum. If the world as we know it is nothing more than our dream, does this make the dream real? If we had the choice to step out of our world into a more real but less pleasant one-to take the red pill-would it be a moral failure not to do so? Why do humans have a value above that of intelligent electronic mechanisms? Can the mind live without the body or the body without the mind? In the Matrix and Philosophy, professional philosophers analyze the Matrix from many angles: metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic. They uncover hidden depths in this intricate work of art, and often reach disturbing conclusions. Those who take the red pill never look at 'the real world' the same way again.Irwin, William is the author of 'Matrix and Philosophy Welcome to the Desert of the Real', published 2002 under ISBN 9780812695021 and ISBN 081269502X.