Dr. Patrick Lee Miller is an associate professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Becoming God: Pure Reason in Early Greek Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2012), and co-editor of Introductory Readings in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy (Hackett, 2015). He also writes for Quillette.

In this episode, we talk about the philosophy of the Black Mirror series, by Charlie Brooker. We go through some of the general themes we were able to identify running through the series, including: the individual and social aspects of life, and their interplay; the role that technology plays, and if it leaves space open for human agency; personhood, the self, copies, simulations, and how we should deal with them; what it is to be the “true” person; the benefits of virtual reality, as well as its drawbacks; mortality, immortality, and the meaning of life; punishment and Nietzsche’s Eternal Return; how we should deal with memory and knowledge, and what we should know. In the latter part of the discussion, we also talk about the usefulness of thought experiments, the relationship between philosophy and science, and the Platonic soul.

Follow Dr. Lee Miller’s work:

Faculty Page: https://bit.ly/2NhdBVH

Book “Becoming God: Pure Reason in Early Greek Philosophy”: https://amzn.to/2YjaP3a

Quillette essays: https://bit.ly/31UAH7M

Black Mirror:

Wikipedia: https://bit.ly/2dCpfbt

Netflix: https://bit.ly/2GN2UBu

IMDB: https://imdb.to/2N5tedz

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, AND RICARDO VLADIMIRO!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

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