...| Plato, Descartes, and the Matrix After obtaining knowledge from the Matrix, Plato's Allegory of the Cave or The Republic and the first Mediation from Descartes, I see that there are a few likenesses and contrasts. I would need to say that The Matrix and Plato's hole purposeful tale were more comparable because the individuals included in both stories, they existed in this present reality where they were being cheated about what the fact of the matter was. In the Matrix, once Neo saw this present reality and that all that he thought was true was really a hallucination, is very much alike to the shadows on the dividers of the surrender that the prisoners saw in Plato's Allegory of the hole. In both stories, both characters could encounter reality as well as the phony world and was given opportunity to see reality and were confounded. Nonetheless, the detainee in Plato's story in the wake of picking up this new information let others in servitude know of his recently discovered learning however felt that the first truth was less demanding to with the exception to. Then again Neo in The Matrix chose he needed to realize what the right truth was. Both characters were intrigued by figure out reality however they recognized reality in an unexpected way. Plato thought it was fundamental for the affixed man in the Allegory of the Cave required to escape from the hole to look for reality. Socrates portrays a gathering of individuals who have lived anchored to the divider of a buckle...
Words: 1325 - Pages: 6
...of my eyes, if I were to take off my prescription lenses, the world would seem to me as if someone applied a Gaussian blur filter to everything in front of me. Without the aid of my glasses, objects blend into one another and details not immediately in front of me disappear from my perception altogether. This, however, does not mean that the object ceases to exist just because I can no longer see it. We learn this concept of object permanency at a young age. Similarly, if we take Morpheus’ claims to be true, and the world outside of the Matrix as reality, the entirety of Neo’s life experiences up to the point when he’s freed from the vat of liquid have been false. For years, the visual stimuli perceived by his mind seem to have fooled him, and this serves as a testament to our inability to objectively discern truth from falsehood, “the real world” from the fiction. All we have to rely on are our senses, but the existence of Matrix, or even more mundane illusions have proven that they can’t always be trusted. They are susceptible to manipulation. However, I posit that the ability to discern whether his perceptions were now real in that situation would not make any practical difference to him, because for all intents and purposes, that is the reality that he presently found himself in. He needed to make decisions according to that set of perceptions, because if it was in fact real, he would remain in control and if it wasn’t, the consequences of his actions wouldn’t matter...
Words: 317 - Pages: 2
...Topic: The Matrix is an analogy to our society. The film offers a unique insight into how we perceive the world around us. Certain aspects of contemporary society often inspire films. Filmmakers usually exaggerate and bloat issues in order to position the audience to perceive the world in a certain way. The year 1999, just a year before the start of a new century, where computers and the Internet was getting more popular. The Wachowski brothers decided to make a movie to inform the world of the dangers of letting technology control our lives. The movie, The Matrix, was a film about a dystopian world where machines control everything and humans are merely a part of their system.. The main character Neo, a professional coder by morning and illegal hacker by night is dragged into a world of agents and gravity defying action. This film includes the very commonly perceived view of a working culture in our society and also shows how we sometimes forget that we are in control of our lives and all our decisions have consequences. These insights are presented through captivating and engaging scenes in the movie in order to make the viewers understand and enjoy the movie. Therefore making it a movie to remember along with its views of the world, as we know it. Ezra Taft Benson once said, “ You are free to make your choices but you are not free to choose the consequences”. Every part of the movie is filled with choices from beginning to end. Similar to how we are faced with many choices...
Words: 1161 - Pages: 5
...Jeanette 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...
Words: 1006 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 861 - Pages: 4
...The movie I feel best describes one’s yearning to find self, and free will is The Matrix. The Matrix is a science fiction action film directed and written by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The story of The Matrix is set some time in the future in which the reality perceived by most humans is in real life a simulated reality developed by machines to subdue the human race. It all began when humans were at war with AI (artificial intelligence) machines created in the 21st century and they have taken over the Earth. Humans thought by “scorching” the sky, it would block out the sun and cut off the solar power required by the machines. Now we all know as humans when your food supply runs low or out we find other means to survive. The machines found other means as well……humans. The human body produces bioelectricity which the machines adapted to and used as a power source. Enslaved humans were kept docile inside the “Matrix”, a simulated world. The main character Neo has lived in this simulated world since birth, but always knew something was wrong. When contacted by Morpheus he was given the opportunity to discover what the “Matrix” is. After swallowing the red pill, Neo awakens and finds himself in a liquid-filled holding container with tubes connected to his body. He then realizes he is in one of the millions of containers inhabited by docile humans. They were being harnessed for their bioelectricity to power the machines. When the machines...
Words: 571 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 986 - Pages: 4
...people have absolute freedom, as Satre sates in his article “Existentialism”. Therefore, they can decide who they are going to be. However, the people in “The Matrix” do not have free thought. Throughout the film “The Matrix”, people in the Matrix and the real world believe that they have free choice and absolute freedom to determine who they are and what makes them a success; however, they do not have freedom because they are either controlled by the AI or the circumstances of their existence. People make their own decisions in the Matrix so they tend to believe that they have freedom to determine their lives. In fact, artificial intelligence is controlling the people and feeds on them. People in the Matrix live life as a prisoner. The most pathetic true is that the prisoners do not realize they are prisoners; on the contrary, they deem themselves free. People who live in the matrix feel comfortable in the environment they grew up in. They believe what they have seen and experienced is real, but they cannot see that they are chained. For example, in “The Matrix” when Cypher is eating steak with agent Smith in the restaurant, he says, “I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.” Cypher knows the truth that his senses in the Matrix are being deceived...
Words: 1434 - Pages: 6
...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,...
Words: 1728 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 708 - Pages: 3
...What is considered to be a great movie? I think all movies are, in there own way, great. Practically all movies are created by following certain elements. These basic elements are as follows: story, writing, drama, acting, sound, editing, movement, and cinematography. For the most part, all these elements go hand in hand, almost every movie, usually, has a certain balance between the elements. Different movies may focus on different elements in which make that particular movie more appealing than others. The Matrix is one of my favorite movies and I would like to evaluate its elements and style in relation to its subject matter. I give credit to the creators and directors of movies because I know that what they do isn’t easy. Like all movies, its script is done over and over again. The Matrix wasn’t brought out in theatres until 1999, but yet one of the first screenplays was written in1996 and later revised in 1997. The story is told from a few different points of view because the story and the plot seem to go hand in hand, as the plot changes, so does the narration, but doesn’t seem to have any specific narration from any one person. The story is first seen from the point of view of Thomas “Neo” Anderson (Keanu Reeves). Then as the movie progresses, we see a small twist when two of the character roles are reversed. Then near the end of the movie, we see another small twist when the same two characters switch roles once...
Words: 257 - Pages: 2
...multiply the matrix by the position vector of the point. Example: A transformation is represented by the 2 by 2 matrix M = . To find the image of the point (3, 2) under this transformation, you need to find the result of the following matrix multiplication So the coordinates of the image are (8, -1). Example 2: A rectangle has coordinates (1, 1), (4, 1), (4, 3) and (1, 3). Find the coordinates of the image of the rectangle under the transformation represented by the matrix . Solution: You could find the image of each vertex in turn by finding , etc. However, it is more efficient to multiply the transformation matrix by a rectangular matrix containing the coordinates of each vertex: . So the image has coordinates (2, 0), (11, -3), (9, -1) and (0, 2). The diagram below shows the object and the image: Any transformation that can be represented by a 2 by 2 matrix, , is called a linear transformation. 1.1 Transforming the unit square The square with coordinates O(0, 0), I(1, 0), J(0, 1) and K(1, 1) is called the unit square. Suppose we consider the image of this square under a general linear transformation as represented by the matrix : . We therefore can notice the following things: * The origin O(0, 0) is mapped to itself; * The image of the point I(1, 0) is (a, c), i.e. the first column of the transformation matrix; * The image of the point J(0, 1) is (b, d), i.e. the second column of the transformation matrix; * The...
Words: 2245 - Pages: 9
...of Ideas In 1999, the year it came out, the movie “The Matrix” directed by the Wachovski brothers was considered by many as one of the best action movies in the film industry in decades. It was understandable after the success it had at the box office, and its success among viewers, which was not only local but global also. The structure of the journey of the hero, Neo, is nothing new. In fact, it starts and it ends like all the other journeys that preceded it, with the advantage of being rich in thought-provoking themes in comparison to the other movies of the genre. In order to help in the development of those themes, the Wachovski brothers use a lot of allusions, references from religions, myths, philosophy, literature, without changing the pattern of their hero’s journey which is clearly the same as the one represented in Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey. Using the latter, it would possible to understand the use of certain figures of imagery, camera movements, and other tools by the Washovski brothers in the making of this film. 1- Departure Just like any other hero’s journey, the story of the matrix starts with the departure, which is comprised of five steps: a) The call to adventure b) Refusal of the Call Fotso 2 c) Supernatural Aid d) The Crossing of the first threshold e) The Belly of the Whale During this first stage of the journey, the hero has to separate from the world he knows, and in the movie “The Matrix” there are lots of symbols, motifs with connections to...
Words: 2059 - Pages: 9
...Week 5 Essay After reading the three readings, I can see some similarity and differences between the readings from the philosophers. Comparing the Matrix and Plato’s, the similarity is they both agree that the life we are experiencing is not as real as what it appears to be. It is simply an illusion and a life that we can question and doubt about. From Matrix’s story this happens when Neo ‘the hacker’ had a dream that made him think about the reality and the thought that there is something more to life. When Morpheus came and told him “that the world is an illusion, an elaborate system of deception perpetrated to keep people contentedly under control” (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999). Neo then choose to eat the pill and see the truth that the human race is only relying on a machine to keep their bodies alive. Human beings are actually unconscious, therefore they are controlled by the machine. Because of this, what we see or do today happens because we are programmed into a computer simulation called Matrix. From Plato’s allegory, we see it when Socrates described men’s nature being as prisoners since childhood; being chained inside a cavern not being able to move their heads, but only looking. When one of the prisoners was released and was given the opportunity to see the light; and guided with what was going on. The human being that has seen the light will think what “he had seen before was all a cheat and an illusion. He will then want to turn toward real things”...
Words: 809 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1090 - Pages: 5
