Her got a lot of attention during its run in theaters. It even captured the attention of philosophers, no doubt because of the movie’s focus on artificial intelligence, a fixation of philosophy for at least as long as the term has been in our common vernacular. Released on DVD back in the spring, the movie received mostly (but not exclusively) positive reviews. Life in Her Continue Reading …
Modern Science Searches for the Self
Below is a clip from David Malone's recent documentary, Soul Searching, originally broadcast on the UK's Channel 4. It reviews some of the latest developments in brain science to discover that the self might just be an illusion, a byproduct of the brain's left hemisphere trying to construct a narrative of reality. It makes for compelling viewing, and those uninterested in Continue Reading …
An Analytic Philosopher Grapples with “Soul”
If Star Trek's Data were to write about the soul, it might be this self-parodyingly soulless: Soul talk is expressive in the same way as other nondescriptive utterances, like "oh my God" or "ouch" or "yuck" or (with head nodding to music) "Yeah, that's funky." There is no clear referent for those. They don't seem to refer to or represent anything—they seem somehow Continue Reading …