ABSTRACT
Ventriloquism is a bizarre practice. It is a low-tech speech act with a complex logic of its own and with a long history in show business going back to vaudeville. The act of the ventriloquism has intrinsic interest for those who appreciate the popular arts. Philosophers, like magicians, have always been interested in illusion. The illusion of ventriloquism is something like what happens at the movies. Ventriloqual illusion, in a very different way, has a certain analogy with Cartesian philosophy of mind. Ventriloquism is a case of what the Greeks since Pythagoras called ecstasis, or being beside oneself, where the ventriloquist talks to or with oneself—something we all do at certain times, as when one has lost one's keys. The ventriloquist needs to efface himself as speaker while, as mentioned, pretending to listen. Furthermore, ventriloquism requires the unusual ability to switch quickly between these vocalized personalities assuming dual personalities in a single unbroken conversation.
