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The University of Southampton
PhilosophyPart of Humanities

Philosophy Cafe podcast. External world scepticism, or what if you're in the matrix?

Published: 1 March 2012
John Hansard Gallery

In the film 'The Matrix', the main character discovers that his life is an illusion - all of his experiences have come from a perfect computer simulation fed into his brain. This is a modern version of thought-experiments employed by philosophers for hundreds of years.

Dr Conor McHugh discussed whether the seeming fact that we can't tell that we're not in the Matrix shows that we don't know anything about the world around us in this session of the Philosophy cafe? He also posed the question - if you 'are' in the Matrix, exactly what difference does it make?

You can listen to to a podcast of the talk in the right hand section of this page.

Philosophers at the University of Southampton give regular talks at the Philosophy Café, held at the John Hansard Gallery, as part of the Humanities Lifelong Learning programme. These highly successful free events provide food for thought in a relaxed atmosphere for like-minded individuals - no previous philosophical experience is necessary.

To find out more about forthcoming Philosophy Cafes please visit the Humanities Lifelong Learning website.

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