Plato, Descartes, And The Matrix

Plato claims in his text The Phaedrus that all souls are immortal. He states that “every soul is immortal, for that which is always changing is immortal” (1), and that “since it does not come into being, it also necessarily does not perish” (1). This perfectly illustrates Plato’s claim as he explains that a soul is at every moment changing itself from within and since it is capable of changing itself, it will never stop changing. Furthermore, because the soul is a source of change, it must also be an origin. This means that the soul cannot be created or come into being, and consequently cannot perish. As a result, the soul must be immortal, for it will never ceases to exist. On this subject, Lewis would completely agree with Plato’s claim. According to the text The Three Parts of Morality by C.S.

Unable to know any better, people’s blindness to the truth about their existence throughout the ages has been relative to the questioning of reality. We search but are unable to the see the truth through the illusion that the world before us has portrayed. One might ask, how do we know what is real and what is simply illusion brought by our subjective view of the world? But when attempting to understand the nature of our existence, about why we are here, the complexities of life often make it difficult to interpret this subject. The film The Matrix centers on this same concept that the known world is an illusion. The movies core theme of reality and illusion is definite to the humans understanding of what the true meaning of life is. Ones

The Republic is considered to be one of Plato’s most storied legacies. Plato recorded many different philosophical ideals in his writings. Addressing a wide variety of topics from justice in book one, to knowledge, enlightenment, and the senses as he does in book seven. In his seventh book, when discussing the concept of knowledge, he is virtually addressing the cliché “seeing is believing”, while attempting to validate the roots of our knowledge. By his use of philosophical themes, Plato is able to further his points on enlightenment, knowledge, and education. In this allegory, the depictions of humans as they are chained, their only knowledge of the world is what is seen inside the cave. Plato considers what would happen to people

In “The Matrix” and Plato’s Phaedo and Republic questions of what makes up a whole and fulfilling life are answered. Both The Matrix and Plato provide alternate forms of reality, one that is based on truth and is fulfilling and one that is based on a false reality that offers false forms of fulfillment. The Matrix and Plato show the difference of living a life in a true reality and a “fake” reality where everything inside this reality is fake making the lives inside this reality fake. True education, the ability to recollect, and knowledge of reality gives people the ability to live their lives in truth and give life meaning

The Matrix, Plato’s, The Republic, and Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641 were somewhat similar as the individuals described in these stories, were existing in a world where deception encompassed

In the movie The Matrix we find a character by the name of Neo and his struggle adapting to the truth...to reality. This story is closely similar to an ancient Greek text written by Plato called "The Allegory of the Cave." Now both stories are different but the ideas are basically the same. Both Stories have key points that can be analyzed and related to one another almost exactly. There is no doubt that The Matrix was based off Greek philosophy. The idea of freeing your mind or soul as even stated in "The Allegory of the Cave" is a well known idea connecting to Greek philosophy. The Matrix is more futuristic and scientific than "The Cave" but it's the same Idea. Neo is

Deception is the foundational issue prevalent in The Matrix, Plato’s allegory of the cave, and Rene Descartes meditations. In each of these excerpts the goal of answering the question of what is real and how to uncover the truth is essential. Another question that arises throughout all three excerpts is whether or not the individuals will be able to handle the truth when it is finally learnt. In The Matrix Morpheus reveals to Neo that the life he had previously accepted as an absolute reality is really a virtual reality that is manipulated by a computer which is essentially controlling the mind of every individual as they lie unconscious connected to this

"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

After reading the synopsis of The Matrix, Plato’s The Republic, “The Allegory of the Cave”, and Descartes Mediation I, I can see how each of them relate and how they are different. Through out each story the characters begin to question the world they live in. For instance, in The Matrix humans were controlled by a computer system, mankind controlled the prisoners in Plato’s cave, and Descartes feels controlled by his dreams, and senses he is being controlled by an evil demon.

After reading the synopsis from the Matrix, Plato’s The Republic ,and Descartes Meditation I, it was easy to notice that there are some similarities as well as a few differences. After analyzing all the readings I would be inclined to say that The Matrix and Plato’s The Repulic have extremely similar plots. In the movie "The Matrix", it shows a direct correlation to the story in The Republic in a few different ways. Just like the prisoners in the cave, the humans stuck inside “the matrix”. The people in the cave only saw what the puppet people allowed them to see and the people in the matrix only saw what the machines that controlled there world permitted them to see. They are fooled into being certain of that what they heard and saw in the cave is the factual world that occurs around them. In both readings there was one clear similarity. The people that were involved in both stories were honesty convinced that they were living in a world where they were being deceived about what the truth really was.

Many ancient philosophers, including Plato, explored metaphysics in relation to reality before Descartes’s in-depth questioning of the subject. However, Descartes’s views on mind/body dualism differ greatly from Plato’s. As Marleen Rozemond (author of Descartes's Dualism) points out, Plato believes that the body is simply a vessel for the soul to use, while Descartes provides proof that the body and soul are interconnected (172). One does not simply use the other; though they are separate, the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. Cartesian dualism tells us that "although the whole mind seems to be united to the whole body, I recognize that if a foot or arm or any other part of the body is cut off, nothing has thereby been

Some of the most obvious examples of mythological allegory in The Matrix are associated with the characters themselves. Mythological allegory pointing to Christianity is undeniable in the character and activities of Neo. His given name is Thomas A. Anderson. Thomas is also the name of Jesus’ disciple who tended to doubt; thus the cultural nickname, “Doubting Thomas”. Neo doubted everyone and seemingly each situation he encountered; he especially doubted his role as The One. His surname, Anderson, traced to it rudimentary form, means Son of Man, which was Jesus’ favorite term for himself. Consider also that Neo is an anagram of “one,” and as a prefix it means new, recent, or in a modern form. In the text, Neo becomes a new man, The One. His choice between the red and blue pills is reminiscent of the choice always available to Adam and Eve, the choice to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The choice to eat the fruit would be an irreversible decision, one that would change the course of history. Accessing the knowledge of good and evil also evokes, what some in Christendom call, the age of accountability, the age at which one knows the difference between good and evil and therefore much make a choice serve one or the other. Jesus is said to have grown in wisdom, stature, and in the favor of both God and humanity. Neo experiences a similar messianic growth process. When his physical body is rescued from the pod, it is atrophied and full of needle

As I was reading through the synopsis of the Matrix, and the readings from Plato and Descartes, I noticed resemblances along with several differences. I think the biggest difference is that they were all trying to understand whether or not reality/life is real, or if someone or something else controls it. The biggest difference I noticed was that they were all controlled by different “powers”. Computers controlled Neo from the Matrix; we know this because it says that the brains are connected via cables to a powerful computer. I would say that in Plato’s situation, other humans, or mankind controls them; they call themselves prisoners and are in chains.

Plato once said that, “Ignorance [is] the root and stem of all evil”. Ignorance is the cause of everything that is wrong and bad in the world since people are unable to see the truth. If people start breaking free from ignorance, mankind will become happier and more transparent. In the short story, “Allegory of The Cave” by Plato and The Matrix by the Wachowskis, they portray the idea that in order to gain enlightenment, one must break free from ignorance; which opens himself to knowledge; this new truth must then be shared with others for the good of mankind.

Every philosopher seems to be more concerned with constitutes reality than any other factor. When different ones were discussing the law, mathematics, science they were still trying to nail down reality to their satisfaction and determine what it is and whether it truly exists the way people have always believe that it does. Descartes for example was a noted mathematician who is still studied to this day. All three snippets are looking at whether reality, actual reality, is better than some perception, and again if there truly is a separate reality.