Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 40 No. 3, 2020.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi40301
On the Edge of Playability: Existence and Transcendence in the Movie eXistenZ
Ante Jerić
orcid.org/0000-0003-0926-6123
; Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilišna avenija 4, HR–51000 Rijeka
Abstract
Philosophy and science fiction are two separate discourses that use counter-intuitive scenarios in two distinct ways. Where philosophy endeavours to ground counter-intuitive scenarios, science fiction as a transmedial fictional genre acts in a pragmatic and exploratory manner by seeking to imagine what it would be like if they were real. In this paper, I analyse David Cronenberg’s science fiction film eXistenZ, and defend two theses. The critical-theoretical thesis: Cronenberg thinks society is being gamified and seeks to dramatise the process of gamification along with its pitfalls. The metaphysical thesis: Cronenberg’s diegetic world brings about a new articulation of the scepticism as an old philosophical problem. An attempt to excavate the metaphysical presuppositions of this work reanimates Cartesian interactionist dualism and Kantian transcendental idealism, as two well-known philosophical positions.
Keywords
science fiction; thought experiment; David Cronenberg; scepticism; free will; interactionist dualism; transcendental idealism
Hrčak ID:
245110
URI
Publication date:
21.10.2020.
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