Blade Runner and Descartes' Meditations Essay

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Roy then equates fear to slavery, subjection and servitude to inferiority. He is still not quite settled with his inferior position. (Is he like Milton's Satan -- a being created with such majesty that he cannot reconcile submitting to a God?). But Roy has compassion after all: he saves Decker from falling, using his hand which has a nail in it (a Christian image of the crucified Savior?). This could be, as Roy goes on to reflect and tell Decker of the things he has "seen" before bowing his head and submitting to death. A dove (or is it a pigeon?) flies upward (a symbol of his soul leaving his body? -- Scott may be suggesting that these androids do have souls, given them by God, even if their bodies and memories are given them by Tyrell).

Roy does not go so far as to assert, like Descartes, that God is the source of his innate ideas (the source is Tyrell, at least to a degree…). But Roy does seem to have a sense of goodness and perfection. Did this come from Tyrell too? If so, where did Tyrell get it? Descartes states that it must have been put there by God, who exists (not just in his mind but also outside it because by definition God is perfect and cannot be contained within the mind of an imperfect creature like man).

So what is Roy? And what is Decker? The origami unicorn that is left for Decker in the last scene may suggest that he and Roy are the same -- androids.

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Or it may suggest that there is no difference between android and human, not when both have a consciousness, which Descartes shows is enough to begin one's journey to God and truth. (Roy's soul does seem to fly upward to God). And Decker's ability to take charge and escape with Rachel, with the unicorn (the symbol of his imagination -- distractions) crushed in his hand. This is comparable to Descartes' sixth Meditation, in which he affirms that man must not let himself be distracted by what he thinks he perceives but must firmly use his intellect in order to distinguish truth from falsehood. There is it seems in Blade Runner, hope for Decker….....

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