Angelabrafford-Phil Essay

Through the six Meditations, Descartes comes to the conclusion that memories and dreams could be deceptive and are not to be trusted. He discusses the existence of material objects, God, and himself. God exists and allows deception and Descartes’ ability to recognize that everything is false proves that he exists as well. He explains the difference between imagination and intellect, as well as the idea that the senses are deceptive and that knowledge comes from the mind and reason. The six Meditations show how Descartes’ proves his own existence. He argues with himself for days as he tries to figure out how he exists and how he can trust his own mind. Descartes’ belief in God allows him to solidify his own existence, as well as the existence

The question that he had, which becomes the basis of the argument, was how can one differentiate between dreaming and being awake? This becomes a vital part of his hypothesis. Descartes is known to doubt the doubt and research the doubt before he can deem it as truth. He does this via Method of Doubt. This argument is similar to that of his senses being prone to deceit.

Now, it has already been mentioned how he denied the existence of his surrounding in order to prove reality little by little. However, how Descartes treats the external world after “proving” its existence has not yet been covered. By the end of the last meditation, Descartes has accepted the fact that the external world must be real. Nevertheless, he argues that the world that he perceives and the world that another perceives may, and likely do, differ. The reader is once again involved in this, but in a slightly different way than the previous invocations. In this case, the reader is involved as part of Descartes’ proof. The reader can understand that he or she observes the world in a specific way, but no one can be sure that another sees it in the same way. Due to this, the lasting effect that the reader experiences is open-mindedness. Looking inward, readers must decide whether or not they accept the world as a subjective entity. If they can accept this fact, it is likely that Descartes would say they have achieved enlightenment and truly know

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and The Matrix, both deal with defining the concept of what is really “real.” In both stories, the main characters are trapped in a false reality, which essentially is all they have ever known. In order to shake the false reality, both must experience an essential “culture shock” and take a journey outside of the reality they are living in. But sometimes, its hard to face the true reality. The greatest struggle for both characters is distinguishing between what is perceived as reality and what is reality.

Throughout Descartes meditations, it is clear that he strongly believes he has been deceived over a long period of time by his senses, and therefore cannot trust any current knowledge he has previously claimed to have had. He reflects on the fact that he has often found himself to be mistaken with regard to matters that he formerly thought were certain, and seeks to rid himself of all deception, reconstructing his knowledge by somehow withdrawing completely from the senses, and doubting everything. It is very clear what his overall object is while writing this piece, he wishes to question all knowledge. In Descartes Meditations, he questions many metaphysical topics such as the existence of a separate body and mind. He furthermore goes onto

The idea that what people perceive as real could be false, either as a pale imitation of reality or a false reality created by another entity, has existed for centuries. The concept of whether reality is real has intrigued philosophers for millennia and the idea of reality being an illusion has become a staple of fiction, particularly science fiction. One of the films to utilize this idea is The Matrix. To say that some of the central ideas of this popular film came from long pondered philosophical questions might seem ludicrous, but such is the case. While there are differences, there are also marked similarities between some of the writings of Plato, Descartes, and plot of The Matrix.

Descartes starts of his meditations with a very simple idea. That he has no concreate evidence that he, or anything else exists. Descartes has a few reasons to question his existence, the first on being that our senses can be deceived, easily enough in our everyday lives. How are we supposed to trust the senses that are known to fail us quite frequently? Another reason Descartes gives for doubting is the fact that an evil mastermind could have been our image of God, constantly trying to change how we see things or manipulating our thoughts, and perceptions. The last reason for doubt that Descartes talks about is the possibility that all of existence could have been, and will be a dream. Dreams are so realistic that anyone inside the dream would

“What is real? How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain (The Matrix).” While this question and its following analysis are from the late 20th century film The Matrix, the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato would have agreed wholeheartedly. Plato was a 4th century B.C. Greek philosopher who explored many fundamental philosophical concepts and instituted one of the first educational establishments in the Western World.

“What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain”(Morpheus from The Matrix). A ground breaking work of art that forces us to question everything we think we know to some, and a narcissistic, self absorbed movie that takes itself and its ideas way to seriously to others; The Matrix is one of those movies that you either completely love or undeniably hate. With it's strong philosophical themes on the nature of our perception of reality, The Matrix could easily be considered a modern take on Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

It is fascinating to examine the process by which Descartes took to completely dismantle everything he knows in his pursuit towards explaining different truths throughout the world. I think Descartes came to the realization that he was perceiving things incorrectly in his life which disappointed him. Descartes understands this because he is basing all of his incoming information about the world through his senses. Descartes is puzzled by his dreams versus his realities because he is capable of dreaming about the reality. If this were to be true, how could it be possible to determine which one is actually reality? This thought process seems to push Descartes deeper into question as he begins to challenge other aspects of the world that seemed to be of concrete truth. Descartes then realizes he cannot trust in the knowledge he once trusted in. Due to this, Descartes seemed to be angered that god was allowing him to be deceived. Descartes than seems to take the path towards the notion

In Descartes’ “First Meditation” he examines the things in the world that can be called into doubt. Descartes wants to know what things he could be absolutely sure of. He decides that even if something is slightly false he will treat it as though it is completely false. Descartes concludes that he cannot be sure of the physical, however he is certain of his own existence and that he is a thinking thing.

With the false sensory perceptions in mind, Descartes believes of this idea that an evil demon exist to solely try and deceive him using his senses. Which leads Descartes to cut out all understanding and beliefs of everything he cant be sure of “no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies” (pg. 139). But then Descartes realizes and states in his second meditation, if he cut outs everything in which he thought existed what would he be left with, nothing, would he himself even exist? No, he has to exist right because he’s thinking and the evil demon is deceiving him. The evil demon would not try and deceive him if he did not exist in the first place. (Descartes Meditations 1-3, slide 26) This train of thought leads Descartes to his most famous line and the basis

The Matrix is a sci-fi action film created in 1999 by Andy and Lana Wachowski. The Matrix explores each branch of philosophy with great depth, giving the viewers a reason to question the world we live in today. The most intellectually stimulating problem presented by the Matrix trilogy is the question of the nature of reality posed by the premise of the film. This is actually an ancient question, which Plato asked and attempted to answer in his Dialogues, especially in the famous allegory of the cave. Both share the major philosophical issue, metaphysics, with the ongoing questions of “What is reality?” and “Are we living in the real world or an illusion of the real world?” Are we only glimpsing that which we have the potential to behold?

This argument is based in the uncertainty of knowledge. Descartes argues that we cannot be certain of the physical impressions upon our minds because the world can potentially deceive the mind, leaving it with false impressions. Due to the fact that our minds can conceive of a reality in which we are dreaming or some nefarious force is

In contemporary society acceptance of illusion is commonplace. The majority of the world’s populace lives in a world of virtual reality as an escape from the truths of reality. Their senses are no longer their own since they have been brainwashed by the media (agents) instructing them as to what they should wear, what they should buy and where they should buy, how they should feel, etcetera. Liberal academia takes it up a notch by indoctrinating students with communistic and socialistic ideology. It is not surprising that sci-fi dystopian films such as the Matrix have been embraced by viewers of diverse age groups. The purpose of this dissertation is based on philosophical, psychological, sociological, and metaphysical dialogue in regards to a comparison of an