Comparing Doubt And The Allegory Of The Cave

Thesis: There are many similarities in the Matrix ( Wachowski, Andy, and Lana Wachowski 1999 ), The Allegory of the Cave ( Plato ) and Meditation I of The Things of Which We May Doubt ( Decartes, 1641 ). It appears as you take a close look at the Matrix that it is a retelling of “The Allegory of the Cave” with elements of “Meditation I of the Things of Which We May Doubt” in it as well.

In Plato's Cave, the prisoners are tied down with chains, hand, and foot under bondage. In fact they have been there since their childhood, which much like matrix people are seen as in reality being bound within a pad whereby they are feed images/illusions which keep them in a dreamlike state and they have been in this bondage by virtue of the virtual reality pads in the fields since their youth and like the allegory of the Cave they are completely unaware of such a predicament since in regards to the Cave they have become conditioned to the shadows that dance upon the wall and do not see the true forms of which the shadow is a mere non-substantial pattern of. In the Matrix, within the person of the virtual world, it is a non-substantial pattern of the world, it is reflective of the real world, it is a shadow in its form and nature being a simulation of the world at a particular point in history. Like the prisoners in the cave, those who are prisoners in the system of a matrix are held in their calm state by reason of the illusion that stimulates them and tricks them into remaining asleep or rather into being ignorant of the fact that they are prisoners in pads so the machines can feed on their bio-energy. The shadows on the wall which are reflective is to keep the prisoners on the Cave unaware of the fact that they are prisoners, that they are under bondage and have never truly seen life outside of the Cave. The shadows on the walls are by puppets, perchance puppeteers. They could be seen as the agents, whom within the Matrix being programs are to maintain that the humans asleep in the matrix remain in their comatose state, they are to support the illusion, by keeping man actively ignorant of what is truly happening, so they never wake up. The puppeteers of the puppets which are seen on the wall to keep the mind of the prisoners stimulated so they never realize that they are chained, and only have a vision that is straightforward, which is basically saying their minds are only subjected to a single perspective and they are blind to the degree of seeing within other perspectives, broader perspectives and this in and of itself is a limitation.

The Matrix script has a complex symbolic storyline, with apparent philosophical allusions, and is full of elements and clues that could provide the reader with multiple interpretations. However, beneath this complex layered structure, its underlying main theme is about the nature of reality. In this essay, we study three of the most noticeable philosophical references in The Matrix: Plato’s allegory of the cave, Descartes’ mind-body problem, and Baudrillard’s simulation theory. For each of these philosophical ideas; first we draw parallels between the script and the idea, and then we examine to what extent The Matrix accurately reflects the idea and stays loyal to its conclusion.

People seem to think that everything that happens to them everyday is real. The question is, though, “What is real?”. Is everything you see everyday really real or is it fake? We might see fantasies that other people or machines have created for us. Maybe we are the ones that are not enlightened yet. Numerous essays and films have been produced on this subject. One essay is “The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato in 360 B.C. Also, the movie The Matrix was filmed in 1999. Even though many differences can be drawn between “The Allegory of the Cave” and The Matrix, there are many similarities as well.

The similarities between The Cave and The Matrix are too uncanny. The description of the cave above, which is discussed in the first paragraph of Plato’s seventh book, can be portrayed similarly in

In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the focus is based on prisoners who are chained up in a cave and can only see the shadows of the real world. In this story one prisoner is released into the “real world” and tries to enlighten the other prisoners. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is living in a world controlled by a computer program and he does not know. He is brought into the real world by people that have been enlightened and he plans to help the other people. Even though The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave are set in different points in time and show some different points of view , they also have comparable plots, characters, and symbols.

Having read the synopsis from The Matrix, the excerpt from Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 514A1-518D8 “The Allegory Of The Cave”, and the excerpt from Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641 “Meditation I Of The Things Of Which We May Doubt”, I am able to conclude that there are similarities as well as differences among these readings. Each question the state of reality in which we live. Is our reality a true state of reality or is it a state of mind we have allowed ourselves to exist in?

Watching the film ‘The Matrix,’ it is natural to question whether the world we live in is real or not. Neo, the hero, comes to know that the world he lives in is not real thanks to Morpheus. In the future world, the computer rules humans, who are, in turn, born to grow in an incubator. Further, human cerebral nerves are connected to a computer networks, which implies men cannot help living in another incubator till death although they cannot recognize they live in the incubator. Plato’s allegory of the cave is analogous to the story line found in ‘The Matrix.’ People live in a cave, looking at their shadows reflected on the cave wall. They never realize they are in a cave. Plato’s allegory of the cave assumes key words leading the story

While interpreting Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave’’ in which is a representation that described a narrative of the society of people in before Christ years. I realized how there was a major comparison of people in today’s society that reflected the same prisoner traits as the prisoners that were described in the dialogue. According to the Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” It described conditions of people chained at birth unable to function as independent individuals that were locked in a protracted dark cave. They were allowed to rotate their necks but could not stand up unless told to or leave the cave. Within this cave they could only watch a wall showing flash images and objects as if the prisoners were watching a play or movies at a theater. They believed that the pictures shown on the wall were factual in which they were just shadows of objects that were behind them. The objects reflected forms and puppet that were placed up by puppeteers to create shadows on the wall. The prisoners were unable to see the puppeteers and seemed as if they were watching a puppet show in the dark.

There exists a place in one’s mind that determines what is real, and what is not. One could argue this distant concept as being linked to the subconscious; others, such as Neil Gaiman, provide a template for existence on the other side. The children’s story Coraline reveals the truth of darkness and confusion in a supposed replicated dimension. The Allegory of the Cave is an essay written by philosopher Plato that explains the analogy of prisoners kept facing a wall in a cave to those who experience a perfectly formed enlightenment of the mind. Those who break free are unveiled into this bright and amazing world and are initially overwhelmed, for everything that they once thought to be is instantly proved to be wrong, or more to say, altered. The theory of forms, applied to this story, assumes the existence of some distant reality, with the perfect “forms”. This idea provides for all things in the real world that we physically and mentally live in. The forms are theoretically donated into the real world, but lose their perfection along the way, and instead inherit a base for numerous opinions: these are the objects that human’s perceive every day. The forms in Coraline are displayed, with all child appeal, as within a physical small door, leading to the “other side” of the flat. In the world, objects are beautiful and wondrous, but confusion of course sets in, as the new view is so astray from the normal source of opinions. The captured sense is new, and truly; horrific.

What do Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix all have in common? All of them study the possibility that our world is just a fantasy. They also demand that we took a good look into the relationship concerning our senses and reality.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one", Albert Einstein. This quote from Einstein touches on how reality is not something that one can fully grasp without questioning the reality that you are in presently and both Plato and the Matrix address through their work. In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, he discusses how society controls information so that the people know only what they need to know and nothing more. In the Matrix they show how society has used the control of information to create an illusion of a "dreamworld" as Morpheus calls it, to crete a false sense of security and happiness. This illusion was supposed to keep the people satisfied so that the citizens would not want to question what was going on and dig

Can you ever imagine living through life completely chained and facing a reality that doesn’t even exist? With there being so many ways to look at the world some people accept what they think is the truth before acquiring more knowledge. That’s what happened with the two different but yet similar stories. The prisoners in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” were blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie “The Matrix” that was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. These stories are good examples of explaining the feature of the way people think. They were both given false images and they accepted what their senses were telling them, they also believed what they were experiencing was all that really existed. Plato wrote “The Allegory of the Cave”, to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality

Man undergoes stages and travels in a fairy tale like dream unknowingly of the living life (Wachowski, A, & Wachowski, L, 1999). Plato and Descartes paint a picture of perception of the Earth that rises questions of what is real. The Matrix is much different than the other stories, because it shows humans are controlled by an unknown artificial intelligent figure. The figure deceives individuals to believe that they are actually living a productive normal life in the world (Wachowski, A, & Wachowski, L, 1999). Furthermore, the story of Descartes is different than the other stories because it describes God and the creation of mankind. This story, shows God having control over the people, and their minds (Descartes, R., 1641). Overall, this story shows mankind not having control over the predestined of the early part of birth of life to the ending of death of life.

The Matrix then relates with The Allegory of the Cave when Neo, a normal citizen who had been searching for the man in control of the matrix, Morpheus. Once he finds him, he has the decision to live in the matrix or return back to his normal life. As he chose the matrix life and continued his journey to understand exactly what it is, he finds it hard to accept the fact that this might be the reality no one else can see. The Matrix directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski and The Allegory of the Cave written by Plato both express the possibility that we are living in an alternate reality. Each movie shares similarities between the cave and the matrix world, prisoners compared to Neo, and the “shackles” that hold the characters back from achieving their