Deckard/Descartes

[Kasper Ibsen Beck]

First of all you have to escuse my very bad english - I´m a dane from the
cold north!
I am looking for comments about the relationship between the movie and
thougths of the french philosopher René Descartes. Obviusly there are some
connections starting with the similarity between the names Deckard and
Descartes. Furthermore Pris is actually quoting Descartes in Sebastians
appartment, "I think therefor I am" or cogito ergo sum.

For me the movie is interesting because it says that the mind and thinking
is constitutes (is that correct?) the human being. The replicants want to be
recognised as human beings because they have thougts and feelings. And this
is also what Descartes says.

But if anyone have any comments on this issue, please write!!!

Kasper

[Mellorman]

Kasper Ibsen Beck wrote in message ...

>I am looking for comments about the relationship between the movie and
>thougths of the french philosopher René Descartes. Obviusly there are some
>connections starting with the similarity between the names Deckard and
>Descartes. Furthermore Pris is actually quoting Descartes in Sebastians
>appartment, "I think therefor I am" or cogito ergo sum.
>

Wow! Good stuff, Kasper.
But... I _think_ I'm right in saying that the "I think therefore I am" line
only appears in the film, and not in the book, which would suggest that if
there are Cartesian influences, they are due to Mr Scott, rather than Mr
Dick (who gave us the name 'Deckard').

Nonetheless, an interesting (and original) line of thought.

Rob

[danger...@my-dejanews.com]

In article <7hn9k9$arp$1...@plutonium.compulink.co.uk>,

That IS interesting.

Note: After Pris quotes Descartes, she DOES something--she
doesn't just think about it.

So maybe Scott's really more into latter Wittgenstein than
Descartes after all...

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[Pia Rau Jensen]

Thank you for your comments!!
I agree - the line "I think therefore I am" doesn´t appear in the book, but
actually that doesn´t matter; I am of that observation, that the book and
the film are two different pieces of art, and should be analyzed a part from
each other. And I am more interested in looking at similarities than in
differents. Thats also why I think, that it is of no importance to discusse
if it is Wittgenstein or Descartes that is the philosophy of this movie. And
that is also because its not a question about thinking vs. acting.
Wittgenstein would never say that the thinking establishes the human -
instead his starting point is the language and not the thinking: "my
language is my world".

(You should know how hard it is to discuss in a language you´re not familiar
with :) )
But I think you´re right, Mellorman. I believe that its Ridley Scotts
thougts we can see in Blade Runner. The main-idea in Blade Runner is to
analyze what thing that makes a human human. That thing is the thinking,
which öf course divides the human in two pieces: body and soul. The
replicants don´t have a human body, but the only thing they want to be, is
to be recognized as humans because they have thoughts.

I hope you don´t think, thät my comments (or thougths) sound to angry - I
really appreciate your remarks!!

Kasper