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Films

Total Recall

Antony Tomlinson recalls Nozick’s Experience Machine.

A key tool in philosophical investigation is the ‘thought experiment’. A philosopher imagines a situation to assess whether a given philosophical idea is plausible within that scenario. Often the scenarios are far-fetched and rely on imaginary technologies. Unsurprisingly, then, philosophy frequently finds itself reflected in science fiction. Even Hollywood blockbusters can be great philosophical thought experiments.