Aristotle In Blade Runner

Few have had as much of an influence in as many fields of thought as Aristotle has. Plato’s pupil and consequently Alexander’s mentor, possibly the first polymath, the ripples of the Macedonian’s teachings are still being felt all across the world and formed the basis for Western culture for over a millennia until the arrival of the Scientific Revolution. Following from this, in this essay one will explore into Aristotle’s views on tragedy and final causation and comprehend how these can be applied to the movie Blade Runner.

Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, laid the ground down for his theories of substance, of which the most important and influential one would be the final cause, or telos. This theory provided an explanation to the natural position of each
The movie dwells into the degradation of the human condition and the search for identity, dealing with themes ranging from ethics to genetic engineering.
The viewer is led to believe that the replicants, due to their slave status, are subordinate to humans and thus, of an ‘inferior nature.’ Replicants, under the motto “more human than human” have been modeled after the best attributes of men, but theoretically, proscribed from developing emotions.
As the movie gains in complexity, the boundaries separating replicant from human fade. Deckard undergoes a process of own-dehumanization by purging the infected society of the ‘higher’ beings. Whilst on the other hand, Roy Batty, in his quest to perpetuate life, raging against the dying of the light, evolves from a ‘senseless’ machine to reaching a quasi-divine condition, he was hindered from by his own nature.
Concerning Aristotle’s notions of ‘recognition’ and ‘reversal,’ the audience, thanks to clues insinuated throughout the film, eventually recognizes that Deckard himself is a replicant. The reversal refers to Deckard’s inability to kill Rachael, his replicant lover, when he is previously instructed