| This thesis unites cognitive science and subjectivity, seeking to assess the impact of different models of cognition on individuals' self-conception. Looking at the computational model of minds in sources like Descartes and Turing from philosophy, and the Matrix trilogy from popular culture, reveals that this construction is linked to the liberal humanist subject, supporting traits such as autonomy, agency, and free-will. A survey of new models of minds portrays cognition as distributed, embodied, and cultural that, offering different possibilities for subjectivity. These reconfigurations reduce the emphasis placed on centralized cognitive processing, displacing the conscious 'I' as the focal point for subjectivity. Using the films of Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, I conclude by showing how subjects may react to this remodelling of cognition and speculate on why the conscious 'I' remains so important for subjectivity when cognitive science has already declared it obsolete. |
