The Matrix through Plato’s and Descartes Sample Essay

The Matrix through Plato’s and Descartes Sample Essay

The Matrix is a movie that confronts the factual and
the component of a convoluted, fake cyber-reality. In the movie, prior to
Thomas Anderson (Neo) discovery of the realism Morpheus asks him, “Have
you ever had a dream that you are so sure was real? What if you were able to
wake up from that dream, how would you know the difference between that dream
world and the real world?” (Richard & Smith, 1997) .Morpheus’ question
addresses instantly the reality issue that concerns both Descartes and Plato.
The cave allegory written by Plato highlights similar themes that are
introduced in The Matrix, evidently the idea of dissimilar realities one might
perceive. The Matrix also compares with Descartes’ beliefs on the power and
perceptions of individuals’ mind.

The issue of reality raised in the movie resembles
closely to that of Plato’s (allegory of the cave). In his allegory, Plato
invites us to envisage human beings as prisoners kept from infancy in a dark
underground cave. The prisoners are chained around their necks to make them
only see before them while behind them is a fire, which projects their shadows
on the wall ahead of them. These shadows act as the only realism that these
prisoners have ever come across (Waterfield, 1993). When one prisoner is freed
from his chain and is able to turn around, he is overwhelmed with confusion of
what lies behind him. He finds himself at loss since he cannot distinguish
which realities, the one that has been presented to him suddenly or the one
that he grew up with is the true reality. There are several differences between
the Plato’s allegory and The Matrix. In the Plato’s cave allegory the prisoners
are “disabused of their error” (Kraut, 1992)and released by their masters
(Waterfield, 1993). In The Matrix, Neo’s a character who is freed by a group of
misfits trying to damage the matrix. In the cave, the prisoners see their
shadows on the wall utilizing there senses and comprehend them as complete
reality whereas In the movie slaves do not employ there senses at all. All the senses
are stirred by signals that are sent straight to the brain.

When compared to The Matrix, Descartes also presents
very common features. The dream metaphor, the cheating of people by the demon
of malignant, the consistency of particular physical truths, and the divide
between the body and mind are the major ones (Richard & Smith, 1997).
However, there are also some major disparities. For Descartes, the likelihood
of dreaming remains just a ‘likelihood’ contrary to The Matrix where the dreams
are realized. In addition, the God existence is another big disparity because
Descartes believes strongly in God but the movie ignores his existence (Richard
& Smith, 1997).
Can we prove the world we are experiencing is real? How do we know
we are not dreaming, living in a Platonic cave, or trapped in some sort of
matrix?

According to Descartes, everything present in us is
an innate idea. She believes in the existence of a benevolent God, who provided
us with senses and mind that cannot deceive us. By proving that God exists in
her Meditations, she verifies that everything we distinctly and clearly
perceive is true since god is not a deceiver (Descartes, 2008). She further
used the law of adequate reality, which states that, in order to create
something the creator must have more reality than the creation to prove that
God put the ideal in her (Descartes, 2008). Since God is the most real, then we
can rely on our sense’s reality. Therefore, through Descartes philosophy, we
can prove that the world we experience is real and not a dream of a life in a
platonic cave or a life trapped in a matrix.

References

Descartes, R. ( 2008). Meditations of First
Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kraut, R. (1992). The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Richard, A., & Smith, M. (1997). Film Theory and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford
University Press .
Wachowski, A., & Wachowski, L. (Directors). (1999). The Matrix [Motion
Picture].
Waterfield, R. (1993). Plato’s Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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