Coming From Nothing
A Thought Experiment Novella
A tragi-comic philosophical novella about how the internet is reshaping our notions of personal identity.
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Coming From Nothing is a tragi-comic love story concerned with notions of identity, such as Judith Butler's idea that sexual identity isn't determined by the body, and John Locke's that personal identity is a question of memory.
The first novella in Zero Books new series of Thought Experiment Novellas, these are books that work out philosophical arguments in their plots. Whether focusing on William James' determinism, Descartes' mind/body dualism, or Judith Butler's argument for gender performativity, these short books attempt to flesh out philosophical problems. They are stories wherein philosophical ideas have consequences, at least in the lives of the characters.
Coming from Nothing is a literary beignet sweetened by a rich powdering of philosophical speculation. The metaphysics of gender, the nature of personal identity, the relations among mind, body, information, and society - all of these contribute to a central philosophical enigma. Are Carrie’s and Jules’s driftingly intersecting lives governed by the causal powers of absences, or by the absence of causal powers? ~ Josh Dever, Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin
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Where our virtues really came from, what they really mean, and where they might be taking us
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