The Matrix, The Republic, And Descartes Meditation

The movie the Matrix is full of philosophical relevancies and issues dealing with morality. Rene Descartes and Iacovos Vasiliou are both great thinkers, and both of them had great ideas that played a big part into forming the idea of the Matrix and it’s reality and whether or not it was real or not. In my paper, I will describe both their sides and their opinions on the matter of the Matrix, and how Neo, the main character, would feel in regards to all of it. I will also discuss how I believe both Descartes and Vasiliou in their views.

The movie “The Matrix” is a clear demonstration of Descartes Meditation One, they both question the reality in which they are living, and rather or not if it is real or if it is controlled by something else, questioning the current reality. For Descartes, it is controlled by evil demons, whereas a supercomputer controls the Matrix. Both are in what is perceived as a dream state where the senses cannot be trusted.

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.

This idea is represented in the matrix by “The Desert of the Real” and the motifs of mirrors throughout the movie. The reflections represent the confusion toward the blurred line between reality and simulation. Similarly, this idea of the blurred line between reality and simulation is reflected with Cypher’s conversation with Agent Smith. A firm believer in the theory “ignorance is bliss”, Cypher prefers the ‘happier’ simulated life to the truth facing him. By emphasising this simulated environment, the Wachowski brothers allow us to analyse our own dependency on technology for our lives. Similarly, Card analyses this idea of human kind living in a simulacra in his novel Ender’s game. Not knowing the truth, Ender is deceived by his military superiors into believing that the real battle against the buggers was simply a computer game. “Real. Not a game.” After this sudden revelation, Ender cannot cope with his existence, and only finds redemption in religion. In both texts, the composers use textual forms to highlight the idea that computers are used to create a simulation which absorbs the user, hiding them from the realities of life.

Neuromancer came up with a novel approach towards science fiction, and was instrumental in spawning multiple movies of similar genre. One of such movie is “The Matrix”. The reason I chose this movie for the review is the very concept of stimulated reality in this movie being quite analogous to the one slowly budding towards the end in the Neuromancer.

This essay will examine the philosophical questions raised in the movie The Matrix. It will step through how the questions from the movie directly relate to both skepticism and the mind-body problem, and further how similarly those problems look to concepts raised by both Descartes’ and Plato’s philosophies. It will attempt to show that many of the questions raised in the movie are metaphor for concepts from each philosopher’s works, and why those concepts are important in relation to how they are presented in the film. In this analysis, we will examine the questions of skepticism and the mind-body problem separately. Part one will examine how the film broached the subject of skepticism, and in doing so how it ties in to

The movie “The matrix” is a clear demonstration of Descartes Meditation One. Descartes works up to his case for universal doubt in Meditation One, and introduces the “Evil Demon Hypothesis”. The movie “the Matrix” is a great example of how Descartes considers, and rejects the possibility that senses could lead to being deceived. This is equivalent to the Matrix scenario, when Morpheus tells Neo that reality is totally different from what he and other people perceive it to be. In the movie Matrix, what people perceive as reality is actually a dream that is created by a super-computer, where humans are sleeping in “pods” and are having the experiences fed directly to their brains.

In the looking at of the framework the Matrix, Plato's The Republic (The Allegory of the Give in), and Descartes Meditation I, I can see distinctive likenesses and furthermore separates. They all demand reality in which they are living, and rather or not is it veritable or controlled by an option that is other than what's normal. In every single one of these stories the all-inclusive community were suspicious of what reality truly is or isn't. They all in like way anticipated that would leave what they saw as reality to watch what they recognized to be true blue reality. There were also several complexities between them also. For instance, in The Matrix it was controlled by a structure, Plato's surrender was controlled by humanity, and Descartes

If I think, then I exist. Something cannot be thought without there being someone that thinks it. If there is something being doubted, there must be someone doing the doubting. I am the thinker that thinks and the doubter that doubts. I think, therefore I exist. The Matrix and Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy tell me that reality is not something I can perceive solely through electrical impulses in the brain. Rather, reality is dominantly at the scrutiny of my mind’s judgment. It follows that reality consists of both a physical reality and a nonphysical reality in which I exist the thinker.

When looking at Descartes’s meditations one can find similarities with The Matrix. In the film Morpheus asks the question of what the difference is between the real world and the dream world. Descartes reflects and asks if he is in fact awake or sleeping “I see plainly that there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep” (Descarte, 111). This adds to the overall question of both The Matrix and Descartes’s meditation of what is

The brain in a vat, although just a recap of the argument by Descartes, is more directly related to The Matrix. The pods that humans spend their whole lives the film, represents the vat. The difference here though is that, the pods contain the entire body instead of just a disembodied brain. The notion, proposed by Descartes, about all our perceptions being false may seem ridiculous, but is in fact something impossible to disprove. Moreover, Descartes was right to distrust his senses. Optical illusions for example, produce a difference between what we see and what we experience. In the case of optical illusions, people are aware of the difference, but they do not normally question their senses. Reality and its basic assumptions were to be

Jeevan Jacob Philosophy 100-04 Professor Bates 4/11/14 Word count: 462 Where is the Soul? In “Where Am I,” Daniel Dennett questions the meanings of identity and consciousness. He never truly concludes his questions with an answer but I believe that the computer that is an exact copy of his brain cannot have a consciousness because it is a computer, not a human being. Dennett makes a complicated example when his body and his brain get separated, yet he can control his body through technological means. After the old one is destroyed, Dennett receives a new one that is just as capable as his old one.

Our perception of the world around us is entirely dependant on the validity of reality. Our world could be produced or simulated by some sort of machine, or life is actually just a dream someone dreamt up one night. Reality is dependent on our perception, which is affected by what truly exists. Meaning that if we, as a single person, are the only thing that actually exists, then that proves that reality is indeed not real. But considering this point is considered Solipsism, there’s enough evidence to go against it. Disproving solipsism is the key to support the idea that reality is real.

The reality doesn't require verifiability of it. Indeed, the weak and ignorant minds need that.

In “The Transparency of Things”, Rupert Spira tackles different philosophies surrounding consciousness. I would like to say that Spira would look upon Descartes’ project unfavorably. I believe this to be the case, because of their different views on human certainty, the argument between being awake and dreaming, and their overall values.