Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual

Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual
Author: Keith Ansell-Pearson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2002-08-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134559690

This lucid collection of essays the continental-analytic divide, bringing the virtual to centre stage and arguing its importance for re-thinking such central philosophical questions as time and life.

Get Real

Get Real
Author: Philip Zhai
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 254
Release: 1998
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780847689835

A fascinating look at the brave new world of virtual reality.

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0393635813

A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

Black Mirror and Philosophy

Black Mirror and Philosophy
Author: David Kyle Johnson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2019-11-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1119578264

A philosophical look at the twisted, high-tech near-future of the sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror, offering a glimpse of the darkest reflections of the human condition in digital technology Black Mirror―the Emmy-winning Netflix series that holds up a dark, digital mirror of speculative technologies to modern society—shows us a high-tech world where it is all too easy to fall victim to ever-evolving forms of social control.In Black Mirror and Philosophy, original essays written by a diverse group of scholars invite you to peer into the void and explore the philosophical, ethical, and existential dimensions of Charlie Brooker’s sinister stories. The collection reflects Black Mirror’s anthology structure by pairing a chapter with every episode in the show’s five seasons—including an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure analysis of Bandersnatch—and concludes with general essays that explore the series’ broader themes. Chapters address questions about artificial intelligence, virtual reality, surveillance, privacy, love, death, criminal behavior, and politics, including: Have we given social media too much power over our lives? Could heaven really, one day, be a place on Earth? Should criminal justice and punishment be crowdsourced? What rights should a “cookie” have? Immersive, engaging, and experimental, Black Mirror and Philosophy navigates the intellectual landscape of Brooker’s morality plays for the modern world, where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.

Germinal Life

Germinal Life
Author: Keith Ansell-Pearson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2012-10-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134671202

Germinal Life is the sequel to the highly successful Viroid Life. Where Viroid Life provided a compelling reading of Nietzsche's philosophy of the human, Germinal Life is an original and groundbreaking analysis of little known and difficult theoretical aspects of the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. In particular, Keith Ansell Pearson provides fresh and insightful readings of Deleuze's work on Bergson and Deleuze's most famous texts Difference and Repetition and A Thousand Plateaus. Germinal Life also provides new insights into Deleuze's relation to some of the most original thinkers of modernity, from Darwin to Freud and Nietzsche, and explores the connections between Deleuze and more recent thinkers such as Adorno and Merleau-Ponty.

What Is Philosophy?

What Is Philosophy?
Author: Gilles Deleuze
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 1996-05-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231530668

Called by many France's foremost philosopher, Gilles Deleuze is one of the leading thinkers in the Western World. His acclaimed works and celebrated collaborations with Félix Guattari have established him as a seminal figure in the fields of literary criticism and philosophy. The long-awaited publication of What Is Philosophy? in English marks the culmination of Deleuze's career. Deleuze and Guattari differentiate between philosophy, science, and the arts, seeing as means of confronting chaos, and challenge the common view that philosophy is an extension of logic. The authors also discuss the similarities and distinctions between creative and philosophical writing. Fresh anecdotes from the history of philosophy illuminate the book, along with engaging discussions of composers, painters, writers, and architects. A milestone in Deleuze's collaboration with Guattari, What Is Philosophy? brings a new perspective to Deleuze's studies of cinema, painting, and music, while setting a brilliant capstone upon his work.

Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy

Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy
Author: Josef Steiff
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2011
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0812697316

The best and wisest of men or a heartless machine? Crusader for justice or cynical egoist? Mr. Holmes, the brain of Baker Street, continues to fascinate, to baffle, and to be interpreted very differently—by, among others, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Robert Downey Jr., and Benedict Cumberbatch, without losing his unmistakable identity. Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy applies observation and deduction to the ultimate “three pipe problem,” the meaning of Sherlock Holmes. -- Cover p. [4] and publisher's website.

Bergson and Philosophy

Bergson and Philosophy
Author: John Mullarkey
Publisher:
Total Pages: 206
Release: 1999
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780748609574

Various schools of philosophy have tried to position the thought of Henri Bergson over the last eighty years. In France he has been regarded primarily as an early form of phenomenologist, in the United States and Britain he is still regarded as a vitalist philosopher. This introductory study looks instead at Bergson's use of philosophical form itself and aims to dispel the view that Bergson ever stuck to one type of philosophy at all, be it vitalism or phenomenology. The claim of any one form of thought to the title of 'first philosophy' is challenged by the idea of a Bergsonian metaphilosophy which states that, in a universe with no static foundations, there can never be first philosophies. In other words, if everything is changing, then this must be no less true of philosophy. In pursuit of this approach, John Mullarkey explores each of Bergson's seven major works from a metaphilosophical perspective. Taking each book in chronological order of publication, the first four chapters are devoted to examining one of Bergson's works against the background of current debate within its respective field - the metaphysics of space and time, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of biology, and sociobiology. The remaining four chapters take a problem-based approach examining the role of ethics, ontology, methodology and metaphilosophy in Bergson's thought. This book is an important and lucid reassessment of an influential philosopher which sets his work in philosophical contexts appropriate to his thought.Key Features* Covers all major aspects of Bergson's thought and all his philosophical writings.* Places Bergson's work in its proper philosophical context between Continental and Analytical traditions.* Relates Bergson's ideas to contemporary philosophical debate, showingthe importance of his work to Thomas Nagel, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, philosophy of mind, biology and ethics.* Written in a clear style which assumes no prior knowledge of

Bergson

Bergson
Author: Keith Ansell Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-02-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1350043974

A thought-provoking contribution to the renaissance of interest in Bergson, this study brings him to a new generation of readers. Ansell-Pearson contends that there is a Bergsonian revolution, an upheaval in philosophy comparable in significance to those that we are more familiar with, from Kant to Nietzsche and Heidegger, that make up our intellectual modernity. The focus of the text is on Bergson's conception of philosophy as the discipline that seeks to 'think beyond the human condition'. Not that we are caught up in an existential predicament when the appeal is made to think beyond the human condition; rather that restricting philosophy to the human condition fails to appreciate the extent to which we are not simply creatures of habit and automatism, but also organisms involved in a creative evolution of becoming. Ansell-Pearson introduces the work of Bergson and core aspects of his innovative modes of thinking; examines his interest in Epicureanism; explores his interest in the self and in time and memory; presents Bergson on ethics and on religion, and illuminates Bergson on the art of life.