...The Matrix, Plato, and Descartes For centuries, man has embarked on a relentless, philosophical journey to unearth a necessary answer to the question—what is real? The megahit film, The Matrix, ingeniously created by the Wachowski brothers, brings the world’s most celebrated, philosophical theories to light as they attempt to postulate a binding remedy. The first of these theories dates past 380 BC, when Plato crafted his allegorical masterpiece, “The Cave,” which denotes a metaphor contrasting the manner in which man perceives reality. The second involves French philosopher Rene Descartes and his recognized dissertation, “Meditation,” which also proposes a distinctive perspective on the issue. A comprehensive study of the philosophical concepts of “The Cave” and “Meditations” and their manner of manifestation in The Matrix allows one to broaden and enhance his understanding of reality. First of all, one can find several analogous elements when comparing the three works. Each of these revolves around the concept that the illusions man accepts as truth drastically differ from reality. This reality is then unveiled in distinct, but related journeys, which involve a source of deception and a series of logical, enlightening experiences and steps. These steps include a progressive doubt, a means of escape to find truth, a common agony in facing truth, and a growing acceptance of reality and the altered life it comes with. In The Matrix, an average computer programmer, Neo, is led...
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...Taylor Young Phil 201 September 28, 2015 The Matrix, The Cave, and The Meditation The topic of what is real and what is false can seem to be very definite to many people. Typically, it is easy for one to think that if something is tangible it must be real. If asked what is real, one might say, “ The things that I can see, touch, smell, hear, and feel are what is real.” However, there are some people who are not satisfied with this simple answer and would challenge this view. The hit movie The Matrix, Plato’s famous cave allegory, and Rene Descartes’ meditation piece are three works of art that dare to question reality and make one think about the authenticity of the world in which we live. These three works share many similarities in intent and content. All of them intend to prove something about reality, whether it be that it is true or false, trustworthy or unreliable. In the case of The Matrix and Plato’s allegory, the audience is led to believe that the human experience is a fabrication controlled by a larger outside force. The Matrix shows this through Neo’s realization that his whole world has been under the control of a super computer made for the purpose orchestrating every single detail of the lives of the human race. In the Allegory of the Cave, we can similarly see that the prisoners have been bound in place and shown images that they were forced to accept as the true world by a master puppeteer their whole lives. Some of the content similarities...
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...1. Reflect upon Plato’s account of the experience of the prisoner who is freed from his chains in The Republic. Do you agree with Morpheus in the Matrix that most people prefer to remain in the prisons of their minds? Please show evidence that you have carefully read the primary text(s) and viewed the film clip(s). The intent of this paper is to display the scope of the question “what is reality?” in relation to Plato’s arguments in ‘The Republic’ and the theories and inferences put forth in the film ‘The Matrix’. I will discuss the extent to which reality may be more than what appears ‘real’ to us, and I will also address the logic behind the human desire for security through examination my own thought processes. In the Plato’s Cave scenario in The Republic, the prisoner who is freed from his shackles is taken from his own world, the world as he has always known it and lead to enlightenment through the discovery of a new, better world. He is coming from a place where he is happy in his knowledge of his surroundings. When he is shown the world as it really is, he is leaving what he once believed was the only version of reality. He is shown that what he has experienced in the Cave was governed by other forces. As people, we are both enlightened and unenlightened on this matter. What is to say that we are not the prisoner? We are perfectly happy to live in the state in which we find ourselves right now, so thoughts of leaving our secure reality can be daunting. Could we not be...
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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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...The Illusion of Reality: A Comparison of The Matrix and Plato’s Cave The poet Thomas Gray coined the phrase “Ignorance is bliss.” The phrase states that a lack of knowledge results in happiness and that people are more comfortable if they don’t know something. We can apply this phrase to utopias and dystopias and get this scenario: imagine living in a utopic society isolated from the true dystopic world. Would you want to know that you are living a false life and that the true world around you has been hidden? If you had this information, how would you react? This scenario is the basic premise for the Wachowski brother’s The Matrix Trilogy and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Both stories show humans perceiving a false utopic society that is being used to blind them from the true dystopic world. Over the course of this paper I will describe the similarities between The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave and analyze how the Wachowskis and Plato used the ideas of utopias and dystopias as a backdrop for showing human nature. In The Matrix, humans have been enslaved by sentient machines, or sentinels, to be used as energy sources. In order to subdue the human population, the sentinels built a virtual world known as the Matrix. What each person thinks is reality, is actually a complex computer simulation. The Matrix simulates a “utopic” world where humans believe that they have freedom and choice and that their actions have a consequence on this “real” world. In reality, 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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...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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...To make matters worse, there would be no way to go back and you could only dream of the blissful life that you once lead in a lie of a world. So is ignorance truly bliss? This is a question that both Plato and the Wachowski sibling try to answer in their respective works “Allegory Of The Cave” for Plato and The Matrix trilogy from the Wachowski siblings. In both works, they show us that the road to knowledge from ignorance is fraught with struggle yet does not end once you achieve...
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...Allegory / Matrix? Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and the Matrix are similar in many ways, that in which both stories revolve around human beings living in an unrealistic manner and not knowing the truth of the world that we all live in. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we read a story about prisoners who live in a cave, and are forced to stare at the wall in front of them due to having their bodies chained to a wall. All they are able to see is the shadows that project onto the wall in front of them, the prisoners then begin to believe that the shadows in which they see on a day to day basis are the real world. Until one prisoner breaks free and discovers what truly is on the outside of that cave, his eyes are opened to a whole new world and at first he is in disbelief of what he is seeing, and of course his fellow prisoners do not believe the man, and think he is crazy because they are blinded by the fake images of the real world. The Matrix is a computer generated program to protect humans from the truth of the world’s reality. The Matrix is a dream world, built to keep us under control. Humans are all used as batteries, and the machine feeds off of the humans’ body heat and energy, they just don’t see it because of the dream world in which they live in. Until one man, Neo is contacted by Morphias, who soon opens Neo’s eyes to the real world, and shows him just how the Matrix works. Neo at first is in disbelief, he thinks everything is a dream, until he takes the blue...
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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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...University Introduction to philosophy PHIL 1001 How can you prove weather at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or weather we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? Plato For this reflection I founded it fascinating to consider different understanding of reality, I really enjoyed Plato Alegory of the cave amazing piece of art work what a great philosopher for that time period, also movie Matrix great movie directed by Wanch brothers. So questions we can all ask ourselves: Are things we see around us real, are they our reality, and how do we know that for sure, how do we know if we are dreaming or not. These are questions that unfortunately are out of our reach and only time will answer. The Alegory of the cave is a famous story from the Plato Republic, it is a profound allegory with many interpretation, and in this reflection I will compare it to the movie Matrix, and my view of reality. “ Imagine the condition of men living in a sort of cavernous chamber underground, with an entrance open to the light and a long passage all down the cave. Here they have been from childhood, chained by the leg and also by the neck, so that they cannot move and can see only what is in front of them, because the chain will not let them turn their heads. At some distance higher up is the light of a fire burning behind them, and between the prisoners and the fire is a track with a parapet built along it, like a screen at a...
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...information telling the brain, “You are running in Italy, and you smell pizza.” The brain perceives this information as reality. The movie The Matrix is based on the Brain in the Vat. The Matrix, Rene Descartes, Meditation I Of The Things Of Which We May Doubt and Plato’s, “The Allegory of the Cave,” all hold similarities to the Brain in the Vat; therefore they hold similarities to each other. Although they hold similarities to each other there are also some differences between these three reasons. The similarities between the movie The Matrix, Plato’s cave analogy and Descartes’ Meditation I are that they questioned what they knew to be their world—whether it was reality or a dream; they each wanted to leave what they knew to be their world or reality to discover what they individually sensed to be a true reality. They are equivalent in that their perception of the real world started during each ones childhood. In The Matrix, Neo is controlled by a simulated computer system. In Plato’s cave the prisoners are controlled by mankind. Descartes is controlled by his false perceptions of evil demons. In The Matrix, the movie ends with Neo declaring his determination to share with the people the truth about The Matrix and them living in a true world on their own apart from control. Plato deliberates on the effect the cave leaves on one of the prisoner’s after he escapes the chains...
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... Samar Al-Haqab Mr. Lyman Hong English 1A October 8th, 2013 Rationalism and Skepticism: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave and Wachowski’s The Matrix Today’s modern media and society are greatly influenced by not-so-modern artists, philosophers, and writers. We have all watched, read, or analyzed something that was based off of the idea of someone before us. One example for this would be the movie Inception (2010), directed by Christopher Nolan. In this movie the depiction between the idea of a dream and reality is extremely contrasted to the point where it is difficult to draw the line between what is or is not real. The mind boggling adventure of this movie makes us wonder; did the director draw this idea from thin air? The answer is no. In fact, the animated film Paprika (2007), directed by Satoshi Kon directly resembles the ideas and concepts of Inception. This is because Paprika served as a basis for Christopher Nolan in his movie Inception. Movies, concepts, and ideas are always being interpreted or rephrased in different forms. Aside from these two movies, there are other works that are very similar by concept. Two pieces of work that will be discussed further in detail are, the philosophical work, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Lana Wachowski’s movie, The Matrix. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave walks the readers through a dialogue between a character named Glaucon and Plato’s former teacher, Socrates. They discuss the predisposed beliefs...
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...Sampson Professor Scheck Phil 201 February 18th, 2016 Essay There are many similarities to be found between the Matrix movie and the writings of Pluto. Both deal with the way in which we all see the reality in which we live. Is it real? Is it false? How do we know that our minds and our eyes are not deceiving us? These stories give us a glimpse of something that may be true, something that we may have not even realized. They bring to life the possibility that we may be living a false reality. In the synopsis for the Matrix, a man named Neo begins to feel as though something is wrong with his life. When he meets Morpheus and accepts the red pill that he is given, he begins to see that the world he knows is nothing but an illusion. A cleverly put together scenario in which the human race lies unconscious in giant machines meant to keep them alive while the cables connected to their brains play out a simulated false reality. Pluto’s Allegory of The Cave conveys a similar message. His scenario describes men who have spent their whole lives chained at the neck and legs inside of a cave, only able to look forward, never being able to turn their heads in any other direction. Men chained to a false reality would be the common theme between these two stories. The cables connected to the giant machines in the Matrix are the modern day neck and leg chains of Plato’s The Cave. The characters in each story are taught to only see their world from one view. Of course they did not question...
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...Realities Two-Way Street Ignorance is bliss. This phrase, however comforting, is a provocative statement to the debilitating state of society and the human state of mind; the dual-edged comment is represented in both Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the Wachoski brother’s The Matrix through universes, similar to our own, where people are in strong states of illusion and ignorance. Both have a character, which is brought to the “light” to realize this false reality and to liberate everyone else to a better reality, the “real” reality. Situations can arise where having knowledge of it can seem detrimental, however, our very existence as human beings is to live a life of bettering ourselves and the species in general through knowledge both good and bad, and the actions that take place from knowledge. People do actions and make decisions based on history from what he has done wrong or from what he has done correctly and on this basis it is a stepping stone that either good or bad having knowledge of the past, complete knowledge, helps to mold the future positively. Although blissful, avoiding reality will never be a positive action with even in modern days something such as Facebook has become our matrix keeping people away from the outside, not personally and physically interacting with others or now having games that are virtually realities allowing someone to be something else but does not benefit the world in any way. The lack of benefit world is where virtual reality does its...
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