The human beyond means-end rationality: a reading of the video games The Talos Principle and Mass Effect 3

Abstract

This thesis looks into two video games pertaining to the genre of speculative fiction and examines how these narrative worlds dramatize the philosophical tension between human sensibilities and agency, and instrumental rationality seeking to reduce it to mere function. Using Max Horkheimer’s *Eclipse of Reason* as a theoretical foundation, this thesis argues that means-end thinking, often embodied by technological systems, cannot fully erase those human capacities that exceed instrumental logic. The study analyzes Croteam’s *The Talos Principle* (2014) and BioWare’s *Mass Effect 3* (2012) as literary texts that stage this conflict in diverse ways. In *The Talos Principle*, humanity emerges through moments of sublimity, meaning-making through imagination, and rebelling against a system governed by instrumental logic. In *Mass Effect 3*, the conflict culminates in Commander Shepard’s final choice, where technological solutionism is resisted through an assertion of agency and self-determined destiny. The purpose of this research is to contribute to literary, humanities, and game studies discourse by demonstrating how these narrative games serve as philosophical sites for exploring contemporary anxieties about technology, rationality, and personhood, while affirming the persistence of human freedom, reflection, and meaning.