- WEEK 8: Skepticism
Required Readings
- René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy, First Meditation (pp.1–3)
- Christopher Grau: Bad Dreams, Evil Demons, and the Experience Machine: Philosophy and the Matrix
- (Optional: If you haven't seen it, you may also want to watch The Matrix.)
- Kurzgesagt: Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument
- Course Notes for Week 8
Discussion Questions
(Write out brief answers to this week's discussion questions and submit them via a direct message to me on Slack no later than 11:59pm on Sunday, October 17th. Your answers should be brief, no more than a few sentences each. Be prepared to discuss them in class.)
1. Describe an example of a situation in which you thought you knew something and were very confident about it but turned out to be completely wrong.
2. Which part of the simulation argument for skepticism is the least convincing? What's the best reason to doubt that you exist within a computer simulation?
3. What is the most important thing that we would be missing out on if we were to live out our lives within the experience machine? What does this tell us about which kinds of things we value, over and above pleasant experiences?
Zoom Meeting
This week's Zoom meeting will be on Monday, October 18th, 11:10AM–12:25PM. Here is the link to join.