What do Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix all have in common? All of them study the possibility that

What if one were living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesn't even exist? The prisoners in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie The Matrix. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them. They believe what they are experiencing is not all that really exists. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher wrote "The Allegory of the Cave," to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality may be. In the movie The Matrix, Neo (the main character) was born into a world of illusions called the Matrix.

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

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

Cyberspace was a digital rendering of reality and so is the Matrix. Case used rods to inserts himself into the cyberspace, Neo too used somewhat similar technology to return to matrix. Both of these conceptual world allowed characters to move freely and do what they would do in a normal world. Even the supporting characters were quite similar. While Molly locates Case in Neuromancer, it is Trinity who finds Neo in a club. Both of these women are reporting to a higher authority, Trinity to Morpheus and Molly to Armitage. Still, the difference between Neuromancer and “The Matrix” overshadows any similarity quite easily. Though the universe of Neuromancer is heavily penetrated with technology, the one in matrix is penetrated with technology on steroids. In “The Matrix” everything including the reality is a function of

This first paragraph that begins the story is perfect in showing The Matrix ideas. Humans live in pods in large fields were they are grown. So like in the story they are prisoners even as children and they are plugged into the matrix or "chained so they cannot move." The fire behind the prisoners is like the matrix program it self, it's there to make illusions and make the prisoners think what they see is "real." Lastly there are the puppeteers who make shadows using the fire and create illusions. The puppeteers can easily be linked to the machines that hold the humans as prisoners and make what happens in the matrix happen. Such as the puppeteers make shadows in the fire to trick the humans, the machines do the same thing in The Matrix, it's just in a more advanced and complicated way. The machines create

A long time ago the difference between perception and reality was defined as the act of understanding in contrast to the act of being real. Reality could be tricky; most of us including myself depending on scenarios of our lives tend to give in to ideas which are not applicable to reality as a whole. The best example of this is written in the short story “All Over” by Guy de Maupassant. In which his main character Lormerin is very self conscious and narcissistic also Lise de Vance, a former old love plays a big role in hurting Lormerin ego and opening his eyes by showing him, his real self. Many would say that when reality knocks it could be harsh and confusing. In the next couple of

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

The contrasts between the Matrix and the excerpt from Plato are that in the Matrix, the perceived reality that Neo is experiencing is a better description of what the reality outside the Matrix actually is. Outside the Matrix, Neo discovers a very dark, chaotic, and weird place. Whereas, the cave depicted in Plato’s story is a scary and dark place and his place of ultimate reality is in the light

Dream reality equals real reality they are both an experience in my head. One isn’t better than the other. For example, two plus two equals four. I didn’t create it, outside me did. So now I have this doubt and I want to go outside and see if it out there but as soon as you move outside you added new information which made the idea more complex. Which makes it now more doubt, so now I’m confused. The problem with skepticism you use doubt to try to figure out what ideas are good and true then you rip all your ideas apart and say outside world will never save you in finding that truth. The evil deceiver can be pumping all deception to you. He can say, they want us to think two plus two is four, but is it? All of this in the world can be an illusion but am I an illusion? No matter what trick they do to you, you have to be tricked so they can’t get rid of you. You are necessary. Human being and human sole is something you can never prove as an illusion. We have ideas and our mind is like a foundation and you cannot get rid of our mind. He doubted everything so much he was unable to doubt himself. I exist, and I’m different from the world so I have ideas.

Many people think that what we know is not really what is real. This idea is shown through the story of The Allegory of the Cave and the movie, The Matrix. Both the movie and the story are similar (it is said that The Matrix is based on The Allegory) and the main plots of the two can be compared.

In 1999 Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote and directed an American science fiction action film called The Matrix. The movie depicted a future where many humans might perceive is real, is actually a simulated reality. The Wachowski brothers made many explicit references in their film based on the work of French sociologist Jean Baudrillard. In Jean Baudrillard’s essay entitled “Simulacra and Simulations” he mentions in his essay how society has replaced all reality and meaning with representation of symbols and signs.

All three of the works are very similar in many different ways. One way that they are similar is that each puts into question if what we sense is in reality the truth? Let’s dive into a couple of these works a little deeper. In The Republic, Socrates and Glaucon are having this “man to man” type conversation. Socrates mentions “conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood” (Plato). In The Matrix, Neo after he meets Morpheus has given Neo a choice, either pretend they have never met or take a pill “and find out what is really going on” (Wachowski and Wachowski). Finally, in Mediations on First Philosophy, he states “up to this moment, accepted as

On the surface, there are many similarities between Confucius and Plato. Both taught through means of dialogue, and both expressed reticence to provide direct definitions. Both advocated contemplation and education as the means for