The main metaphysical theme of The Matrix brings into question, what is real? That appearances can be deceiving and our sense perception is only real because of electrical signals going to our brain telling us so is one of the main themes of the film. It is the very premise of the whole matrix deception. What makes something real or not real? If all that exists is matter and motion, what is a mind? Can a computer like Agent Smith, Neo's nemesis, have a mind? People perceive reality by using their senses; this is proven wrong because the people in the Matrix have been programmed to sense things in a particular way, therefore they cannot trust their senses. If they could trust their senses, the matrix would be real and it is not, it is an illusion. As for epistemology: Can we know what is Real? Morpheus tells Neo, "All I offer is the Truth." But can Morpheus really be sure that he knows the actual truth? Or does the belief of free will of choices make that idea embody what is to be believed? …show more content…
Neo discovers a reality that is ugly, a world seared by war between humans and machines. Morpheus then says that, "the body cannot live without the mind, the mind makes it real." This relates to Berkeley's theories claiming that the body cannot exist without the mind to perceive it. In correlation to Descartes’s famous quote “Cogito ergo sum,” meaning “I think therefor I am,” would have in my opinion had Descartes as a very valuable ally alongside Neo and Morpheous. Socrates admits his own ignorance after visiting the oracle in Delphi who claimed he was the smartest man on earth very similar to the way the oracle in the matrix maintains her confidence in Neo’s
Let me briefly explain a simplified plot of The Matrix. The story centers around a computer-generated world that has been created to hide the truth from humans. In this world people are kept in slavery without their knowledge. This world is designed to simulate the peak of human civilization which had been destroyed by nuclear war. The majority of the world's population is oblivious to the fact that their world is digital rather than real, and they continue living out their daily lives without questioning their reality. The main character, Neo, is a matrix-bound human who knows that something is not right with the world he lives in, and is eager to learn the truth. He is offered the truth from a character named Morpheus, who proclaims that Neo is “the One” (chosen one) who will eventually destroy the Matrix, thereby setting the humans “free.” For this to happen, Neo must first overcome the Sentient Program agents who can jump into anyone's digital body. They are the Gate Keepers and hold the keys to The Matrix.
2 To be concrete about the difference between the matrix and the "real world," I will refer to one as the matrix and the other as the ideology of the "real." The quotes are necessary as the ideology of the "real" is still a fictional ideology. Furthermore, it must be remembered that Althusser saw ideology as inescapable and a necessary feature of society ("there is no practice except by and in an ideology") (Althusser 93). Therefore, referring to the world outside of the matrix as the real world is insufficient and inaccurate. The ideology of the "real" (as Morpheus says, "welcome to the real") serves to enforce the notion of Neo not as rejecting ideology in favor of reality, but rather moving from the ideology of the machines (the matrix) to that of Morpheus (the ideology of the "real").
First and foremost, Descartes is eager to show the distinction between the mind and the body. In the process of discovering what he is, Descartes starts by concluding that although he can conceive the possibility that his perception of his own body could in fact be false, he cannot conceive the possibility that he is without a mind. Thus, Descartes argues that he has no doubt that he exists by means of thinking and having thoughts. “ I am therefore precisely nothing but a thinking thing, that is, a mind, or intellect, or understanding , or reason words of whose meanings I was previously ignorant”(Descartes, Meditation Two, 27). The idea “Cogito ergo sum” is focused on in this meditation the idea of I think, therefore I am. Thus Descartes knows he is something without a doubt which is a thing tha...
Wartenberg addressed the question: “Can philosophy be screened?” (pg. 272) He then used thought experiment as a way that a film can represent philosophy. So what is “thought experiment”? Thought examinations include nonexistent situations in which the audience are asked to envision what things might be similar to if such-and-such were the situation. The individuals who feel that movies can really do philosophy show that fiction films can work as philosophical thought experiments and consequently qualify as philosophical. Wartenberg argues that it some fiction films as working in ways that thought experiments do, and thus they may be seen as doing philosophy. (pg. 276)
In The Matrix (1999), the world is not quite what it appears to be. Everybody perceives life to be nothing extraordinary, unaware of the devastating truth that lies within their experiences. In the film, Keanu Reeves stars as a computer programmer/hacker named Thomas Anderson, who goes by the alias “Neo”. The plot consists of Neo’s search for the truth behind the computer-generated world, “The Matrix”, or what he used to call ‘reality’. The entire movie revolves around a philosophical question posed by the 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes. Descartes believed that one could not know what is real based solely on sensory experiences. We cannot distinguish what is a real experience from a dream experience.
In The Matrix directed by Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, existentialism and determinism are explored leading one to question what reality truly is through the use of various thematic techniques. Existentialists is the believe that an individual determines their own development through acts of free will whereas determinists believe that all events are determined by causes external to free will or fate. The main character Neo is presented with these conflicting beliefs when he becomes aware that what he believes is reality is merely an illusion, an alternate reality created by a computer program where laws of nature do not apply. As Neo becomes more aware of the glitches in The Matrix, Morpheus approaches Neo and presents him with a choice
How does one know the difference between the dream world and the real world? The youth in todays society are unconsciously idolizing images in social media and are blocking their potential ability to grow in life. Aside from being mislead by these images, they are also being deceived by beliefs and traditions that are inherited from their families. Mental power is needed as much as physical power. Due to the lack of mental growth a lot of humans today are living unconsciously. All of these factors have lethal consequences to an individual’s ability to have individualism and to think for themselves. In the film The Matrix, Neo who is a computer hacker is struggling with life and is ambushed by Morpheus, who becomes a mentor later in the film
Epistemology is the nature of knowledge. Knowledge is important when considering what is reality and what is deception. The movie “The Matrix” displays a social deception in which Neo, the main character, is caught between what he thought was once reality and a whole new world that controls everything he thought was real. If I were Neo, I would not truly be able to know that I was in the matrix. However, it is rational to believe that I am in the matrix and will eventually enter back into my reality later. The proof that that I can know that I am in the matrix and that I will return to reality comes from the responses of foundationalism, idealism, and pallibalism.
Two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato presented the allegory of the cave, several prisoners who have been chained up in a cave for their whole lives. They were facing a wall, unable to turn their head and never been outside. What they can see is those shadows projected on the wall from things passing in front of a fire behind them, the sounds of the people talking echo off the shadowed wall, pensioners falsely believe these sounds come from the shadows and mistake appearance for reality. This allegory have inspired lots of film such as The Matrix, Dark City. Putting the aspect of philosophy aside, peoples found that there are such striking similarities between what happened in the allegory and the features of film. The image projected
Socrates’s work has laid the foundation for all philosophical thinkers after his time. Although never writing anything down, Plato’s account of Socrates’s fundamental thoughts gives us a direct insight into our own beliefs and helps us question our very core values. Socrates has brought about many theories of existence due to the mere questioning of daily attributes like the existence of learning. In Plato’s dialogue, Meno, Socrates poses a valid argument that we do not learn but seemingly recollect knowledge from a previous life. He uses a vague example of a slave boy “recollecting” a geometric problem. After establishing this, he then postulates that our soul is immortal and recollection is evidence of such. This is yet another mistake in
Socrates recalls from personal experience that when he was younger he has a passion to learn about nature and the sciences but then soon realized that he did not have the right mind to obtain such knowledge. Socrates then discovered Anaxagoras who claimed that the mind and intelligence are the cause for everything. Upon further studying of Anaxagoras, Socrates began to disagree with his teachings as he realized that the mind was not talked about as a cause and that he mainly preached about physical explanations for the universe, therefore could be classed as teleological. Socrates fashions a new method that he believes to be the most convincing and reintroduces the Theory of Forms and using it in accordance of all the causations in the world, offering a more materialistic viewpoint. This can be interpreted to mean that the physical body is an obstacle that we live with in the material world implying that real world is in fact immaterial in which the soul just participates in existing in, concluding that it is in fact
Unlike one of empiricism’s major tenets, Tabula Rasa, or blank slate, Descartes believed that the mind was not a blank slate, but actually came pre-loaded, if you will, with ideas, which are part of our rational nature and that our rational nature allows us to grasp . Descartes begins his journey deep within his own mind by claiming that all truths can be conceived by thinking about them. He calls his method cogito or pure reasoning. His famous words “I think, therefore I am,” describes the way that he thinks the mind is the true reality with the rest of reality being an extension. His example to prove thi...
What is real ? How can one define realty ? The Matrix is a movie explaining how’s the technology is taking control over the human race by time. However technology is helping humans to have easier way of life, it’s taking a lot of things from humanity in return. Humans created a monster which is the artificial intelligence. The machines took control of everything and almost everyone. The movie explains that most of the humans are under the machines control and they don’t even know that they are living in the matrix not the real world. The matrix is the modern story of the “ Allegory of The Cave ” where the matrix represents the cave and Neo represents Glaucon. The Matrix parallels “ Allegory of The Cave ” from varies existential perspectives.
The human imagination is a very powerful thing. It sets humanity apart from the rest of the creatures that roam the planet by giving them the ability to make creative choices. The imaginary world is unavoidably intertwined with the real world and there are many ways by which to illustrate this through literature, either realistically or exaggerated. Almost everything people surround themselves with is based on the unreal. Everything from the food we eat to the books we read had to have been thought of by someone and their imagination. The imagination empowers humans.^1 It allows people to speculate or to see into the future. It allows artists to create, inventors to invent, and even scientists and mathematicians to solve problems. J.R. Tolken
In the film, The Matrix, the human race is forced into a “dream state” by a powerful group that controls their reality. “The Matrix” is a false reality where people live an ordinary life. However, this reality, or illusion, is being forced onto people who readily accept it as truth. This concept is where Friedrich Nietzsche’s essay, “On Truth and Lies in a Moral Sense” (1873) begins its argument. Nietzsche begins his argument by explaining that we have a need to form groups or “herds”. To keep these groups together “a uniformly valid and binding designation is given to things” (452). This idea basically boils down to groups create metaphors to further the groups purpose. Nietzsche continues by explaining that “This creator [of metaphors] only designates the relationship of things to man” (453). Ultimately, we can only derive metaphors from a human point of view. As a result of assigning these human designations, the whole identity of the “thing” is lost. Nietzsche wants us to break away from the designation given to “things” by groups because designations will only categorizes things as black and white.