The Empty Man
Philosophy at the Movies - Un podcast de Stockdale Center - Shaun Baker, PhD.
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What are the metaphysical presuppositions of this horror film? What would have to be true about the world in order for the efforts toward manifestation of the “Empty Man” to actually succeed? How might one explain the possibility of such success on the basis of the analogous phenomenon of trauma induced multiple personality disorder? How might this analogy, in combination with a ‘panpsychist’ metaphysics account for members of the Pontifex Institute being able to call “tulpas,” semi-autonomous persons, into being? How does the notion of a tulpa (and the story’s main character, James, a tulpa himself), instantiate a thought experiment of Bertrand Russell’s, the so called ‘five minute hypothesis?’ Is there a way to tell which portions of the story are supposed to be actual events, and which are implanted memories?
