"PHILOSOPHICALLY SPEAKING...":

University of Manchester philosophy professor Helen Beebee recently noted in an article for IAI News (UK), "It's no coincidence that a lot of philosophers are big fans of science fiction ... [and] if you're a science fiction fan, you're probably a philosopher at heart." The movie Blade Runner, the sequel of which is in theaters now, is a case in point.  Blade Runner, based on the Philip K. Dick sci fi novella "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," considers philosophical questions surrounding the issue of personal identity. For many of us, our identity, our sense of self, is linked to the issue of memory: if our bodies and our brains were switched (a la Freaky Friday, among others), most of us believe "we" would be where are brains are, our brains being the repository of our memories and whatever else we believe makes us *us*. In the original Blade Runner, the replicant Rachael finds out her memories are not actually hers, forcing a fundamental re-think of who she is. (Incidentally, students in my online lit class, "Who We Are & What We Dream: Comparative Science Fiction," just read a different Philip K. Dick story this week.)