I did not really expect a lot, and I was not disappointed. There are a couple of good essays in here that provide some useful background material on philosophical references in the movie. For example, I had not realized that "know thyself" was written over the entrance to the abode of the oracle at Delphi. (I should probably be embarrassed to admit that.) But the majority of the essays reinforce my suspicion that philosophy has lost its purpose. It seems that most everything of value in philosophy has been taken over by math or science, whether it be cosmology, logic, or artificial intelligence.

The philosophers in this volume are right, at least, to pick out consciousness as a key presumptive difference between mechanical minds and human experience, but unfortunately none of them shed much light on the matter.

Oh don't be pretentious . . . it's fun! It's also all good. The ability to relate thought and thinking not only to the issues of today, but to the contemporary inculturated expressions of that thought is a necessary discipline if ideas are to be recognized and used well. This book undertakes that task well. Enjoy it - and admit it - you just wish you'd thought of it first! ( )

The choice is yours, and you'll have to live with the consequences for at least the rest of your life. Will you take the blue pill – put this book back on the shelf and go on thinking of The Matrix as just a movie? Or will you take the red pill – read this book, and find out just how far down the rabbit-hole goes?
Is the world around us truly as it appears or are we inert bodies in tanks, our brains electronically stimulated to create a make-believe world which is all we know? This old philosophical puzzle has become cutting-edge cool with the appearance of the Keanu Reeves cult sci-fi movie, The Matrix.
The Matrix is the most philosophical film ever made, every step of its fast-paced plot pivoting on a philosophical conundrum. If the world as we know it is nothing more than our dream, does this make the dream real? If we had the choice to step out of our world into a more real but less pleasant one – to take the red pill – would it be a moral failure not to do so? Why do humans have a value above that of intelligent electronic mechanisms? Can the mind live without the body or the body without the mind?
In The Matrix And Philosophy, professional philosophers analyze The Matrix from many angles: metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and aesthetic. They uncover hidden depths in this intricate work of art, and often reach disturbing conclusions. Those who take the red pill never look at “the real world” the same way again.