Who is the Real Vision? | A Philosopher Reacts

this video is brought to you by bright sellers [Music] what's up wisecrack michael here to once again show the ultimate value of a decade spent studying philosophy is the ability to over analyze tv shows about witches and robots this time around i want to talk about a surprising moment in the final episode of wandavision the disney plus series that explores what happens when trauma advanced military weapons and an unhealthy obsession with television all coalesce in a small new jersey town now it's not every day the scene in a marvel tv show gets everyone googling philosophical paradoxes so you know the hungover adjunct who still lives deep inside of me was kind of jazzed about that and warning if you haven't seen the finale come back later i'm about to spoil a pivotal moment anyway the scene in question involves two visions duking it out while asking some pretty intense questions about identity all hinging on a paradox called the ship theseus so join me as i explore questions like who's the real vision are you your mind or your body and most importantly who am i no no seriously who am i because sometimes i feel like it's a truman show situation and everyone's being nice to me but but maybe they're actors that they're paid and it's like do i have friends is my mom [Music] anyway let's get into this philosophy reacts to wand division and again spoilers ahead but before we continue i want to tell you about an awesome deal from this episode's sponsor bright sellers ever wanted to get into wine or kind of put off by the snobbiness of it all well bright sellers can help you on your journey to become a connoisseur without the judgment from a pretentious sommelier to order your first box you simply fill out a quiz with questions like what's your favorite flavor of juice or what's your favorite type of chocolate it'll only take two minutes bright sellers will then recommend a box of wine for you to have shipped right to your home you can make changes or ship as is once it's there you can read more about the wines with their special tasting cards to tell you all about the different notes or how to pair it if you go to brightsellers.com wisecrack2 like the number or click the link in the description right now you can get 50 percent off your first six bottle box so check it out today now back to the show today i'm looking at the final episode of the first season in which both visions wanda's vision and white vision take a break from blasting the sh out of each other to engage in a bit of old-school philosophical speculation i request elaboration in case you've been avoiding the internet for weeks there are two visions one made by wanda with her newly realized powers of spontaneous creation and the other an all-white refurbished model that's traded its mind stone for the cold heart of an assassin so which one is the real vision let's jump into the episode right as divisions are having a debate about which of them is in fact the actual vision because whichever one is the real one is about to be brutally killed by white vision but i'm not the true vision only a conditional vision you are familiar with the thought experiment the ship of theseus in the field of identity metaphysics oh wait so i honestly never thought i would hear the phrase identity metaphysics in an mcu property but then again i never thought o.j simpson would post a video to twitter about how important it is to get a covet vaccine take care stay safe get your shot so hey you never know what life is going to throw at you now identity metaphysics is a way of talking about the relationship between an object and itself or in other words the physical object and the idea of the object okay that sounds confusing but there's a difference between the physical assortment of bones skin and various allergies that i'm made of and the idea of me that is michael burns great friend loving partner and hot sauce enthusiast so how do i know that the specific assortment of bones and stuff is me and how do i keep that identity over time from wee little baby michael to cranky old man michael okay let's watch sociopath vision explain naturally the ship of theseus is an artifact in the museum over time his planks of wood rot are replaced with new planks when no original plank remains is it still the ship of theseus speaking of allergies i think white vision could use some nasonex okay so the ship of theseus paradox helps us think about the relationship between what a thing is made of and what a thing is lots of philosophers have written about this but we can start with athens hottest bachelor aristotle for aristotle a thing's identity has less to do with what it is and more to do with what it does and he gets at this through considering objects in terms of four causes what a thing is made of what a thing should be what makes the thing what it is and the purpose of the thing what he calls the final cause which is most essential in terms of identity for example the final cause of a knife is cutting stuff up in terms of the ship for aristotle its true identity would have less to do with the planks of wood or the building of a boat or the person putting it together and more to do with its final cause i.e being a vessel that floats on water so me and the boys could get hammered at noon while singing sea shanties god i love those guys but there is also another part of the story secondly if those removed planks are restored and reassembled free of the rot is that the ship of theseus so which is the original the one with all the original materials or the original that's slowly been replaced this framing of whether or not a new vessel constructed out of the planks from the old vessel is still the true ship of theseus leads us to consider things in a more material way and under this framework the identity of the ship is defined in relation to the physical planks that make up the ship not the purpose of that thing but it's not without problems uh let's say the new and improved ship is no longer the ship of theseus does that mean that as i get replaced adam by adam as i age that i become a whole new person and if that's true am i liable for the student loans that a different version of of my person took out i don't think so but rene descartes touched on this problem in human terms with his concept of mind body dualism to keep it extremely brief he argued that you are more defined by your thinking mind which she calls a soul and less so by your physical body so if i did a freaky friday with lindsay lohan it'd be me with gorgeous strawberry blonde locks and a grossly unappreciated acting career so now we have two conflicting frameworks a physical definition of identity against a more mental based identity and one division goes all in on this distinction asking is wanda's vision the real vision due to him having the spirit and characteristics of the original vision or is white vision the real vision because he is in the same physical body as the original vision what does our robot buddy think neither is the true ship both of the drew shiv oh thanks that that that cleared it up um but really this is why they call it a paradox because it seems that both chips and neither ship is the true ship in this case white vision's digital brain is stuck in the paradox as he can't decide who in the heck the actual vision is let's get back to it for a second well then we are agreed but i do not have the mind stone okay um there's two ways to read this comment because the mind stone lore is very complicated in one sense white vision is saying he doesn't possess a crucial physical characteristic of being vision he's no more vision than a building without books is a library but also the mind stone is a thinking substance that descartes might even say has a soul so in one sense white vision is saying i don't have the soul of vision but wanda's vision has a good comeback and i do not have one single ounce of original material oh got him now juana's vision is saying that he's not the real vision because he doesn't possess any of the original material vision even though he was made from the mind stone so if we wanted to find the true vision by all the physical stuff that constitutes vision none of us are vision so stop hurting him but wait things are about to get a little funky perhaps the rot is the memories the wear and tear of the voyages the wood touched by theseus himself okay so here to escape the paradox wanda's vision introduces a new way of thinking about the problem one that just so happens to be similar to john locke's take on the whole situation we've covered some of this in our video on cyberpunk so check that out if you want vision is basically saying isn't identity all the awful things we experienced along our voyage through the monstrous abyss of life well for luck that's basically right a little less grim though lock's take is even if you slowly have every single atom in your body replaced you still remember being you memory in other words makes identity and in this whole ship metaphor for vision those experiences the memory of them the wear and tear that's what makes the ship unique and white vision is about to learn this lockheed lesson i have not retained memories but you do have the data it is merely being kept from you a weapon to be more easily controlled but certainly you are the true vision for you believe yourself to be and here white vision is reminding us that hurt people hurt people but um this isn't so much a philosophical point but white vision doesn't have access to his memories at the moment which in lax terms would make him definitely not the real vision also it's important to differentiate between knowledge of a thing that is data about something from i remember personally experiencing this thing which is a memory that was once the case but upon meeting you i have been disabused of that notion may i gotta ask for consent [Music] i think this is what it's like to take dmt i am a vision well um that's that white vision having had his memories restored can now accept his identity as vision it's unclear whether he's going to destroy himself or what at this point but regardless this all seems to more or less affirm a lockian view of identity accessing vision's memories leads him to acknowledge that he is in fact real vision rather than just of rando inhabiting his new and improved corpse so case closed not so fast it would be remiss of me uh to not raise one final perspective on the ship of theseus stuff it's all bull which is not my personal stance but it does seem weird for a couple of ai dudes to fall into a paradox that might just be a result of our dumb human brains as linguist noam chomsky argues our brains are hard wired to perceive what he calls psychic continuity in the world even when it doesn't exist like if a witch turned me into a toad even a small child would inherently understand that the toad was me but according to gnome it's not it's a toad in a baseball cap in other words the ship of theseus or vision paradoxes are not about reality but the nature of our cognitive systems i.e they're less about reality and more about our feeble attempts to make sense of reality so there's no point trying to solve the philosophical problem the problem is an epistemological one it's something about the nature of our cognitive systems it's a bit too edgy logic bro for my more classical sensibilities but still an interesting take anyway setting chomsky's skepticism aside overall i think the show actually did a pretty good job of working in an ancient philosophical paradox in a way that both made sense and actually created some good character conflict so there you have it i'm either my body my mind my memories are absolutely nothing don't worry i'll i'll i'll i'll be fine i can't breathe right now because a lot of them know what if chonsky is right uh but what do you guys think is white vision on a mission of self-annihilation or will he somehow find redemption in his true identity let us know what you think in the comments and definitely let us know if there are other shows and movies you think are worthy of a philosophical reaction big thanks to our patrons for all your support hit that subscribe button like your street fighting your doppelganger and don't forget to ring that bell and as always thanks for watching later [Music] that's traded its mind stone for the heart of a cold stone cold stone assassin that would be like ice cream it's not that's not it i'm going back a cold stone assassin who goes in and says give me the ice cream i'll kill you

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 427,750

Rating: 4.9366002 out of 5

Keywords: philosopher reacts, show me the meaning, deep or dumb, what went wrong, wisecrack edition, vision, wandavision, marvel, wandavision trailer, vision vs white vision, ship of theseus, ship of theseus wandavision, vision vs white vision ship of theseus, wandavision reaction, wandavision post credit scene, wisecrack michael burns, wisecrack michael, wisecrack, wisecrack disney, mcu, disney plus, vision death, philosophy, vision ship of theseus, white vision, wanda maximoff

Id: ncFEXro04Jo

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021