Are you in 'The Matrix'? Philosophy dept. to hold free lecture Oct. 10

Western Washington University’s Department of Philosophy will sponsor a free lecture open to the public at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10 in Arntzen Hall 100 on Western’s campus.

The lecture, “How Do You Know You’re Not a Brain in a Vat?” will be presented by Western Professor of Philosophy Ned Markosian, and addresses a perennially vexing theme expressed in the popular movies such as “The Matrix” and “Total Recall:” is our reality what we think it is, and how could we possibly know if it wasn’t?

Markosian has been at Western since 1998. In 2004, he received the University's highest teaching honor, the Peter J. Elich Award for Excellence in Teaching. He co-authored “An Introduction to Metaphysics” (Cambridge 2010), and has written numerous articles treating issues as diverse as the nature of time, space, freedom, physical objects, and morality.

Markosian’s lecture is the inaugural discussion in an annual lecture series entitled Philosophers at Work. For more information on the lecture or Western’s Department of Philosophy, contact Dan Howard-Snyder, Western Washington University professor of Philosophy, at (360) 650-7767 or dan.howard-snyder@wwu.edu.