PBS Idea Channel

How Does Deadpool Know He's a Comic Book Character? (4x72)

Air date: Feb 17, 2016

According to the philosophical theory of ‘phenomenology,’ our consciousness is unfalteringly dependent upon the experiences of our body. The concept of the mind is inseparable from that of the body because we experience the whole of our reality THROUGH our body. But in Deadpool’s case, his body is not so much a part of his reality as it is just another object that he interacts with. He is unfazed by his own mutilation, and has experienced his own physical destruction too many times to keep track of. So has this fundamentally altered his state of consciousness, to the point of delusion?