...truth to be the actual truth? In the Matrix, we see Neo, a computer programmer by trade and a computer hacker by night. When Morpheus comes in contact with Neo he offers Neo a choice to take the “red pill” and discover the truth or to continue his life blind of the truth. Neo takes the “red pill” and sees that in reality the entire human race is lying unconscious hooked up to a giant computer, living their lives virtually through a software program called “The Matrix”. Neo discovers that everything he has ever known was a lie. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” we see Socrates discussing with Glaucon a hypothetical situation where some people are prisoners in a cave. They are positioned so they cannot move their bodies or their heads. All they can see are images on a wall and all they can hear are echoes. To them it is their reality, it is all they know but the truth is, that it is all an illusion. In the Matrix, Neo chooses to be set free of his illusion but is burdened by the truth. We see Neo go through some negative emotions. In Plato’s writing, a man is set free of his prison and after discovering what was ultimately the source of his deception (the sun) he is ultimately happy that he is finally free. It didn’t matter to him that what he knew was all a lie; just that he was finally free. In the writing of Descartes instead of an actual alternate reality or a hypothetical situation where the truth is distorted, Descartes is actually questioning whether or not...
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...The Matrix, Plato, and Descartes Whether one elects for the “red pill of truth”, or the “blue pill of deception”, the battle for the human mind is being waged. Similarities between the motion picture, The Matrix, “The Allegory of the Cave” from Plato, the Republic, Book VII, 514A1-518D8, and Meditation 1 of The Things of Which We May Doubt, from Rene’s Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy 1641, include the existence of the opposing force that seeks to deceive the human (mind) soul, and hold the body captive by existing in a state of illusion. Each character confronts the enemy of deception and must choose what to do with the truth revealed to them. In contrast for some, the reality of the truth will prove to be too much. The knowledge of the truth can still be rejected and living the illusion of a lie can still be accepted. Neo was born enslaved in a pod, physically stored in liquid, and controlled by the artificial intelligence of computers and machines. Neo serves as an energy source and is fed artificial images that hold him in an induced dream state of a virtual reality. Like Neo, the prisoner of Plato’s cave, has been held in bondage since birth. The prisoner is bound with chains in a fixed position, given only the illusion of reality from dancing shadows on the walls from those outside the cave. The cave consists of people holding others captive to a physical existence and mental prison limited by their physical senses. Unlike Neo being bound by...
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...Compare and contrast the Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes. What are their similarities and differences? It is important to note that Plato, the Allegory of the Cave, the Matrix, and Rene Descartes all question the validity of our sense perception. Plato, Allegory of the Cave, picture men as prisoner dwelling in cave bound with chain and can only see the shadow on the wall and not able to move” ( Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 514AI-518D8 ). Descartes, “suppose we are dreaming, that all these particulars namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the putting fourth of the hands or merely illusion” (Descartes, Meditation on First Philosophy, 1641). The Matrix, complain that computer system has taken over the entire human race and control their minds and keep their brain connected via cable” Synopsis, The Matrix, 1999). The two with the most differences and similarities are the Matrix and Allegory of the Cave. Both Plato, allegory of the Cave and Synopsis; the Matrix both told of stories that people were being deceived about the truth. They further states that people were living in a world where they experience an illusion or some kind of dream. As the story continues, I notice that both Plato and the Matrix believe they have justified reason to support their belief. This brought me back to an encounter Jesus had with Nicodemus the teacher of Israel, who wanted to know what he must do to be saved. Nicodemus asked Jesus, can a man enter his mother’s...
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...part of our imagination. This question is one that has been proposed for hundreds of years by philosophers like Descartes and Plato. How is it possible that a Greek philosopher, a philosopher from the seventeenth century and the movie The Matrix can be so similar? It is the intent of this paper to compare and contrast these questions in relation to the movie The Matrix. The main thing that stands out for each one of these is the question of the reality of the world in which we live. Our sense of being is called into question in each of these examples. Are our senses correct or are we simply living in a dream world that is made up? The Matrix is a computer system that has taken control of peoples everyday lives. Each individual is hooked up to this computer that generates a dream world where everyone believes that they are actually living a realistic life. In the Matrix Morpheus a leader of a group of people who have rebelled against this system come to the knowledge that they are not living real lives. In his recruitment Morpheus meets with Neo and attempts to show him the truth. Learning this Neo sees that what you can see, touch and feel are not exactly real, their senses have betrayed them. In the excerpt from Descartes he makes several statements which also question the reality in which our perceptions believe we are actually living. Descartes states that, “let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars namely, the opening of the...
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...The Matrix In the movie The Matrix, several analogies and philosophies run through the story, as well as the clever naming of certain characters, places, and objects. Plato’s Theory of Ideas and the Myth of the Cave Plato believed that there were two worlds that existed, the world of the senses and the world of ideas. The sensory world was the physical matter, which was always changing and does not last forever, perceived through our senses. The world of ideas is eternal, and consists of patterns which the sensory world was made from. Plato said that we cannot get true knowledge from the sensory world, because it was always changing, and true knowledge lay in the world of ideas, where we perceived through reason, and not our senses. He said that the human being had an eternal soul that existed in the world of ideas before it inhabited the physical body. When the soul sees the imperfect sensory world, it gives the soul a faint recollection of the idea world, and it longs to return and see that idea world again. The Myth of the Cave is another way Plato explained this. He said that a group of humans are in a cave facing the back wall of the cave, and behind them is a high wall blocking the outside of the cave. Some other human-like creatures hold up some figures, above the wall, and all these humans can see are the shadows on the wall. They have been tied up in this position for their whole life. Plato said that the darkness of the cave represents the sensory world,...
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... 2 Question One Compare and contrast The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes. What are some similarities and differences? The Matrix describes a fictitious possibility of a virtual existence of the world and especially the world’s human population, unbeknownst by the majority of people involved in the virtual reality known as the Matrix. Certain players in the Matrix scenario are awakened to the proposition that perhaps their life experience is an orchestrated delusion, set into motion by certain governing powers, in an attempt to obtain and maintain absolute control upon the masses. An important character in the Matrix named, Morpheus, brings the deceptive virtual reality to the attention of other participants in the Matrix, in an effort to help awaken them to the real truth of their existence. It is discovered that rather than the daily life experience and existence of the population of the world, the people are actually unconscious of the absolute reality that they are all in a clinical state of suspended animation. This virtual reality of the Matrix overrides their normal flesh and blood existence by way of computer programming. The discovery of the Matrix false reality is so overwhelming that some individuals participate in rebellion against the Matrix, and others are disturbed by the discovery to such a degree that they choose to be assimilated in the Matrix....
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...being deceived by his senses. In The Matrix, almost every human is plugged into a giant computer and lives out an illusion provided by the computer to the brain (Wachowski, 1999). In The Allegory of the Cave, a hypothetical situation where men are only allowed to see shadows of reality is discussed by Socrates and Glaucon (Plato, n.d.). Finally, in Meditation I of The Things of Which We May Doubt, René Descartes attempts to eliminate all beliefs that might be based on something uncertain. He proposes that a demon may be providing an illusion and his senses may not reflect reality (Descartes, 1641). With all of this investigation around human senses being deceived, is it possible for people to trust their senses? The Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave both deal with how men react to reality when illusion and reality are recognized for what they are. However, they each deal with this recognition in different ways. In The Matrix, reality is far less pleasant than the illusion. Some prefer the truth rather than to be deceived, and one in particular prefers the illusion claiming “ignorance is bliss” (Wachowski, 1999). In The Allegory of the Cave, the hypothetical subjects when confronted with reality find it to be less real than the deceptive shadows that they have always thought was reality. Over time, they learn that the deceptive shadows were and are only reflections of reality and accept and are happy with the reality they have found (Plato, n.d.). However, in this hypothetical...
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...ESSAY Matrix Plato Descartes Essay James Brothers Phil 201 ESSAY In this essay I will look at the similarities and differences between the movie, The Matrix, an excerpt from Plato and an excerpt from Descartes. It will be seen that there are many similarities surrounding the prisoner in the Plato excerpt and the Character of Neo in The Matrix. A bit less similarities follows with the excerpt of Descartes however there are some. Let us begin. The prisoner relates to Neo from matrix as the prisoner and Neo both have only one reality about life. The prisoner and Neo have perceived one reality there whole life and don’t know any different and why would they. They similarly are both taken out of current perceived reality and thrown in to a completely different one. This changes everything for them. As Neo is given a choice of a red or blue pill, the red pill will take him out of his current state and the blue keep him in it. When he is confronted for an opportunity for a completely different reality, to find out the truth you could say. One might say who wouldn’t choose that. If someone says I can show you that your reality if not real and show you the truth who would not want to know. The Prisoner’s reality is as Socrates states, “Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects.” 1 Relating this to neo he lives in a world like ours but he feels or something...
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...February 2015 Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix The Matrix has many similarities as well as many differences with the excerpts from Plato and Descartes. Each of these has different purposes when they were written and therefore have different opinions. One common theme that appears in each of these is the grasp of whether we humans are living in a dream or actual reality. It would not be surprising if the director of The Matrix had read each of these other pieces of writing by Descartes and Plato. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is an intelligent computer hacker that has trouble sleeping at night. He ends up receiving a pill that enables him to understand that what he is living in is just a dream and that everyone is connected through tubes of some sort. This has similarities with the excerpt from Descartes. In Descartes he starts out by explaining that what he has grown up believing to be true out to be not so true. He attempts to clear his mind of all other truths that he believed and start from fresh from what he can determine to be absolutely true for himself. The way that these two are similar is that the main characters, Neo and Descartes, are both seeking truth. Though these two are similar, they are also different. In The Matrix, it is a fictional story that says that everyone is in a dream and that they are just in the matrix. Descartes on the other hand, is written based on a belief. He is trying to determine what is absolutely true. The excerpt from Plato is a conversation...
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...Running head: Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix After reading the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, I realized that it endures a significant similarity to The Matrix whereas the two share nearly identical metaphysical themes and hypothetical assumptions regarding the reality of nature, the experience in the world, and the chance of illusion. At first, the ‘two world’ theory is the main theme that goes through The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave. The existence of two worlds is what this philosophy theorizes, mainly in Plato. The world of the senses and everyday experience is of an imagined world. An Ultimate world unruffled of Formulae is of their existing. Plato is considered by the second world to be ontologically greater to the imagined world of the senses. This theory is also found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Gnosticism with some substantial changes. In contrary, the prisoners sat facing a wall inside a cave, which gave me the scenario that the prisoners are bound by shackles from birth in the story of the cave. In their lack of knowledge, the prisoners take these shadows for the “real things” because from birth they have only seen these shadows on the walls that had images of animals and humans carrying objects. In the development of the story, one of the prisoners is unbound and made to turn around. In the beginning, he realizes the cause of the shadows, which is caused by a flame in arrears of the...
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...Similarities and Differences of The Matrix, Plato and Descartes Frederick Kinley PHIL201-C10LUO March 17, 2014 The Matrix was a film created by the Wachowski Brothers that dealt heavily with the thought of epistemology. Epistemology is a philosophy of origin, nature and limits of human knowledge. In the Matrix the limits of human knowledge was pushed with the question of reality. Is reality real? Is what we see and do true? The question was portrayed in the film by Neo a computer hacker that had a life time nagging question inside that he just could not shake. Neo met Morpheus, a leader of an organization that could help Neo answer his question. Morpheus proposed Neo a plan to follow him take the “red pill” and find the truth or take a “blue pill” and forever stay the same. Neo agrees to take the “red pill” then is launched into a world like he had never seen before. The “Matrix” was a world where humans were only living virtual reality lives. Giant computers were placing thoughts, feelings and everyday life circumstances into their minds. Through their virtual lives they could work, play and even die. Is our reality real today? Are we just victims of a larger, grander scheme? The Allegory of the Cave is a synopsis of The Republic where people live their whole lives in the opening of a cave. The prisoner’s feet and necks are chained so they cannot leave or even turn their heads. Their whole lives the only truth they know...
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...action that follow the awakening. The Matrix is set in a futuristic setting, where the theory of being controlled by a massive computer is a real possibility. What I find most interesting is that Plato actually describes the concept of The Matrix, almost as if Plato’s dialogue was used an inspiration. In The Matrix and Plato’s dialogue, humans are not physically living the life they perceive as “real” but are stationary beings who are forced to live a false reality prescribe to them. This is where René Descartes’ excerpt differs from the previously mentioned. The person is aware of possibility that what he knows as true could be false, that how could we know if what we are living is done consciously or if our existence is but a dream. All of the excerpts also rely on the reasoning that the mind is the sole contributor of our existence and our physical senses only respond to what the mind knows. The differences in the readings is based on the actions or possible outcomes that occur once the awakening has taken place. In The Matrix, Neo decides to act and decides to embark on a journey to discover reality not being controlled by a computer. Plato’s dialogue is different because this is based on a hypothetically theory, so while there is no physically action the questions lies in how would people respond to the truth. Would man continue to live the false life given to them if the truth was unbearable or not what one expected? René Descartes proposes not that we are being manipulated...
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...After watching The Matrix and reading the readings from Plato and Descartes you se some differences and similarities between the two. When comparing the hit movie The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes there are many similarities. Some of the ways that they are similar are; In The Matrix you watch or read about a man named Neo who by day is a normal joe, doing normal joe things but, by night is a computer hacker. This is his life, or at least the life that he knows to be true. From the readings of Plato and Descartes we consider what would happen to a man that is trapped in a cave only ever looking forward and can assume that again this is his life, or, at least the life that he knows to be true. What we could understand from The Matrix and the Plato readings both is, that; both men are living lives that they assume are normal or the same as everyone else; because neither of the men have ever known another life, or known that there are things beyond themselves. This makes the first major similarity that, that people only know what is true to them. If a person spends the majority of their life believing that something is one way, then to them that is their truth. The second thing that The Matrix and Plato readings have in common is that both discuss what happens when the above said person would be, “brought to the light.” Both attempts to consider what would happen when the (in a sense) “trapped” person is shown the truth about the life that they are living and shown...
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...itself in the darkness and that’s exactly what happened when one of the prisoners was released and pushed out into the world. He came back and told his friends what reality was like; he found his friends to be disenchanted by their own notions and could not make sense of it all. Descartes wrote that all that he knew from childhood was all falsehood conviction and no real honesty no substantial entity to grasp onto. He was lost until the light that indicates candor had shown him the way; Descartes found out that his own senses misled him to dishonesty so in concordance he only believes what he sees. Neo however has many misconceptions being trapped in his own mirage cave like matrix of a world; trying to make sense of what is real and what is not. In the matrix no one ever experienced pain or any other physical ailments because how can you run off of a building and not die? How can you get shot at a million times in one scene and not die? For Neo, the predominate factor was that he had accepted the false sense of the matrix’s flawed computer generated ignorance along with the false sense of reality and security. All of that is an illusion of the mirage for Neo. What Neo, Descartes, and Plato had in common was searching for truth, searching for something that they can call their own. Most of us live in ignorance is bliss state of mind because we are afraid of what the reality of the world has to offer....
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...In the film The Matrix, the question being asked is whether or not anything in this world that we experience every day, from the trees that are growing outside, to the people we encounter on a daily basis, truly exists. In The Matrix film, this question is answered with a resounding “No,” that nothing is real and that the true nature around us is a harsh and cruel reality, one where the entirety of the Earth’s population is enslaved to a race of “machines.” The main character, Neo, is at first scared about everything he is now experiencing, questioning whether or not if he’s actually dreaming. However, he does come to terms with the fact that he is in fact living in the real world, and his new mission in life is to save as many people as possible from the lies of the machines. The Wachowski siblings, the two people who created the trilogy weren’t the first people to experiment with the concept of a “real” world outside of our “fake” reality. Philosophers dating back to the time of Rene Descartes, and even further back to the age of Plato, have toyed and pondered with this concept. Even though their concepts are all generally the same, the way they perceive it is very different. For example, the Greek philosopher Plato had this concept of a man who was trapped in a cavern his entire life and was physically restrained with tethers, so that he could not move. The only thing available to him was a fire that would cast shadows on the walls and he would only know these shadows for...
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