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The Epistemology of Synthetic Reality

PH201
Module 2: The Synthetic Turn
3 Lessons

How synthetic media and simulation unsettle the link between seeing and knowing.

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The Synthetic Turn

1

What Is Synthetic Media, and Why Does It Matter?

You will understand how generative AI and synthetic media differ from traditional forgeries, and why they pose a new philosophical challenge to how we know what is real.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions
2

Simulation and Hyperreality: Baudrillard Revisited

Understand how the boundary between the real and the simulated collapses when synthetic media makes copies without originals, and what this means for your ability to know what is true.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions
3

The Liar's Dividend: When Real Evidence Becomes Suspect

You will understand how the existence of synthetic media erodes trust in all evidence, and how this rhetorical move, the liar's dividend, reshapes what counts as proof in public discourse.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions