The Matrix and Philosophy

Course Description

What does a film like The Matrix teach us about our world, our society, and our culture? How does its narrative and cinematic structure shape its view of the world? Using The Matrix as our starting point, we embark on a challenging roller-coaster ride through philosophical issues raised by Zen Buddhism, cyberpunk anarchism, postmodernism, and revolutionary Marxism. We also draw upon other sci-fi classics such as Blade Runner and V for Vendetta, fiction by Pynchon and Murakami, and theory by Karl Marx and Michel Foucault to understand the nature of social change in the era of globalization.