Philosophy and BAA

Your thoughts on the BAA universe. Anything can be posted here.

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Cailon
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Philosophy and BAA

Post by Cailon »

Maybe you discussed that before.

So, its pretty obvious, that there are some philosophical thoughts in BAA and not only some self made thoughts but theories by known philosophers. Or at least great "theorists".

For Example the whole discussion about "freedom":
In the beginning, you could say, freedom is at least having a body again ;)
In the hunter-warrior arc, with Yugo, freedom is to have a dream and follow it a 100%.
In the tuned- arc, its defined as: the stronger you are, the more freedom you have (exemplified on Foggier and Jorg (his companion, I only know his german name...).
We also see this at the begining of LAst Order, when Nova asks Alita, what she will do now, being the strongest person on earth.
Later on in Last Order more and more the element of responsibility comes into the story.

Im not very deep into philosophy, but the theorie of having freedom but also having resposibility with that sounds like Sartre or maybe Heidegger (roughly said: existentialism, but maybe I mistook this...).
So one could say, that in the beginning its more darwinistic (survival of the fittest), while later its going to be like the existentialism.

But like I said, I dont know this much about philosophy, it just crossed my mind. Is it overinterpreted or did you find other hints of theories?
And at least we all know, that Kishiro seems to be quite literate regadring SciFi- theories or psycological topics.. :)
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Rindain
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Post by Rindain »

I agree 100%.

Nova's research is all about the determinism/free will debate. And of course there's the entire mind/body problem--are we merely a physical being/state/brain, or is there some kind of non-physical "soul" that is more than a sum of physical systems?
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Chrome
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Post by Chrome »

The issue of true freedom hasn't been touched upon untill Alita battled Vilma/Caerula, where the issue of 'true choice' is being voiced. I somewhat agree with this viewpoint, in that a human being never has any real 'free will', he acts and reacts on events near him, which are up to a certain level predictable.

Nova researches destiny, not free will or freedom. He researches how exactly we *don't* have free will, rather than the other way around. Alita makes a huge impact wherever she goes, and makes validating his theories on this somewhat easier because he already knows what one event will be that people will react upon.

I think the main issue for the manga itself, philosophically speaking, revolves around 'what is human'. Nova is *an* antagonist, his research is not the center of the story. Alita's search to validate herself and make herself whole again is, though. Volumes 7 and 10 were perfect examples of this.

It's all about how you define life and human beings :)
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