The Connection Between Senses and Reality in The Matrix, Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy and Plato’s The Republic

When the film The Matrix debuted in 1999, it was an instant box office success that captivated many viewers. However throughout the featured famed actors, costumes, special effects and fight scenes, many viewers failed to notice the philosophical issues. Plato and Descartes, just like the characters in the movie are faced and driven to extreme measures to understand the world around them. They are compelled to seek knowledge in understanding what is real, evaluating the mind-body problem, and are left wondering if there is any good. These philosophical features of the movie have raised questions and have made it an interesting film to watch. While many viewers can agree that The Matrix is highly action packed, not all can truly appreciate

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.

In 1999, Larry and Andy Wachowski directed The Matrix, a movie featuring the future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality or cyberspace called "the Matrix”. This fake reality was created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population. To some, this movie represents just another brilliant Hollywood sci-fi action film, but for others, it challenges the understanding of perspective, reality and appearance ("The matrix 101," 2003). The Matrix heavily relies on the concepts of Irish Philosopher George Berkeley who believed reality, or reality as humans perceive it, is fundamentally mental and therefore immaterial which is known as Idealism.

The process of gaining true education for both “The Matrix” and Plato comes from a process of questioning reality to learn what one already knows. This forms the

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

What is reality? What is known? These questions are constantly being reviewed keeping people anxiously waiting for the real answer. The Matrix is a popular movie dealing with many philosophical ideas from, Gods, Beauty, Reality, and existence. The Matrix deals with an intelligent “computer hacker,” Neo, who questions many things such as reality as he lives two different lives day vs. night. With that being said, Neo starts to ponder how does he know what is real, true, or all knowing. As humans we face this challenge everyday, how do we actually “know?” We know because of our senses, evidence, observations, assumption, and Epistemology.

In conclusion, there are many parts of these two stories that are very similar while at the same time having parts of the story that are completely different. Even though The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave have different settings and show a different point of view , they also have comparable plots, characters, and symbols. These stories succeeded in telling the story of trying to obtain true enlightenment and the different journeys taken to get there. Both stories need to be read/watched and the person watching should take the time to dissect each story and indulge in the true

While watching the movie, Inception, one begins to realize the dilemma the character, Dom Cobb, has regarding whether he is dreaming or is in the real world. Since one can never truly answer the question of how much of the movie is a dream, the movie is a great vehicle to examine the philosophical question of whether one can determine the difference between dreaming and reality. From a philosophical point of view, one can use the rationalist theory advanced by Rene Descartes to analyze this dilemma. In order to thoroughly explore the dilemma Cobb experiences, one should use an opposing philosophical theory, such as David

The main variance in The Matrix, Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, and Descartes’s Meditation I, is that in the movie, there is a way to get back to the world of reality; Descartes and Plato only suggest that we are either dreaming or have been tricked, and make us speculate if there really is a way back. They propose that the world we know is not real at all, just a mere illusion.

Sense perception is a way to gain information by using our sense: touch, feel, taste, see, hear, and smell, it is a way of knowing. When it comes to ways of knowing, like sense perception, it is questionable whether or not it affects us in a positive or negative way. It can be argued if it is leading us in the wrong direction. If you see it, do you believe it?

The dream argument claims that the act of dreaming provides an intuitive evidence that cannot be distinguished from those that our senses give us when we are in the waking state, and for this reason, we cannot give full credit to the senses we use to distinguish reality from illusion. Consequently, any experience from our senses should at least be considered carefully and rigorously tested to determine if it really refers to reality. In this essay, I will argue that Descartes’s Dream Argument proves that we cannot gain knowledge through the senses because senses are often deceiving and cannot be fully trusted. Our senses are our primary way of interacting with the world, they give us a raw information about what is present

Do you take the red pill or the blue pill? Is ignorance bliss or is the truth worth knowing? These are questions which revolves around the battle of accepting or rejecting the illusions that constructs all of life. The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both contemplate the question of what is real? According to Plato, knowledge gained through our senses is no more than an opinion, and to obtain true knowledge we must gain by philosophical reasoning. In the Matrix written and directed by the Wachowski sisters (then the Wachowski brothers), had its own complex version of a false reality formed by our perception of life as the actual one surrounds it. To many The Matrix is no more than an interpretation of Plato’s

In the First Meditation, Descartes invites us to think skeptically. He entices us with familiar occasions of error, such as how the size of a distant tower can be mistaken. Next, an even more profound reflection on how dreams and reality are indistinguishable provides suitable justification to abandon all that he previously perceived as being truth. (18, 19) By discarding all familiarity and assumptions, Descartes hopes to eliminate all possible errors in locating new foundations of knowledge. An inescapable consequence of doubting senses and prior beliefs

The second philosopher that analyses the problem of what is reality and what is not in the Introduction to Philosophy textbook is Christopher Grau. Grau, in his essay, expands on Descartes idea of the “evil demon” by basing it off of The Matrix with his theory, The Brain in a Vat Theory. The theory is just like it sounds. Just like in Total Recall, an extremely intelligent device has the ability to give humans and gives them a false reality of a life. What Grau is purposing is that we, as people, could quite possibly be hooked up to a super computer and given false memories and experiences as well.

However, The Matrix and Allegory of the Cave have specific differences in their plot. Both stories have an insignificant amount of exposure to reality. In The Allegory of the Cave the prisoners were not able to choose to be enlightened like Neo did. The prisoners were let go and forced to go into the real world outside of the cave. On the other hand, Neo had the choice of taking the blue pill which would bring him to the real world. The Matrix added romance to the story unlike The Allegory of the Cave. Neo about died until suddenly Trinity kissed him and he started to breathe again.