Emanuel Cabildo D.

Vallejera Philo 1 THX3

Realities and Senses

You ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming? -Thomas Anderson (Neo) The above statement is a line said by Thomas Anderson, more popularly known by his alias in the computer world as Neo, in the beginning of the movie The Matrix. The line might sound a bit clich to the normal person but Rene Descartes actually agrees with what Neo said in the movie. The movie The Matrix contains different allegorical references. A few of these refer to Plato's and Descartes' philosophy that tries to give an explanation to the reality of this world that we are in. In Descartes' Meditations On First Philosophy In Which The Existence Of God And The Distinction Between the Soul And The Body Are Demonstrated , he presupposed that we exist because we think (cogito ergo sum). Parallel to this, people in the matrix think that they are living their own life. But contrary to this, they are just living in a fictitious reality. Anything physical that is inflicted to the people inside the matrix will also affect their human bodies in reality. One scene that showed this idea was in the big fight scene between Neo and Mr. Smith near the end of movie. Neo was hit and punched several times and at one point he was slammed in a wall by Mr. Smiths punches. He was even shot several times by Mr. Smith in the chest. We can see with the alternating views from the matrix and from the real world that Neo was affected not only inside the Matrix but also in the real world. It is because the mind thinks that they are existing in the Matrix makes it think that they are really existing; therefore whenever they get hurt inside the matrix, it also manifests in their physical bodies because the mind thinks that it really happened. Have you ever had a dream Neo that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? -Morpheus, to Neo Another philosophy that stood out from this movie was Platos and his allegory of the cave. According to Plato, the world we perceive now to be reality (called the world of senses) is actually just a mere shadow or reflection of the world called as the world of forms. In the movie, this is clearly represented by the world of the matrix. The movie is set in the future where artificial intelligent robots have taken over the Earth while the few remaining human survivors are living near the core of the Earth where it is still warm. Humans before made AI robots but unfortunately, the robots have outsmarted the humans and took over the world. The humans responded to this uprising of the robots by using methods to block out the sun, the robots life source as they were powered by solar energy. Unfortunately, the robots have discovered another source of energy: human beings. The robots manufacture human beings and they harvest the electrical and life energy human

beings emit. Therefore to keep them put, the robots created the simulated world of the matrix wherein humans perceive a world before the time of the robot's uprising or as an agent named Mr. Smith called it as The peak of [our] civilization. To relate this with Plato's philosophy, it is seen that the matrix was just a mere reflection of the world that humans lived in before. Technically, nothing was real inside it. The mind accepted it as real because it is what they perceived as real, not knowing that they were just inside pods that harvested energy from them. Plato's philosophy of the allegory of a cave was referenced in a scene in the movie. Right after Neo was rescued from the pods by Morpheus' team, he underwent diagnosis and several processes in order for him to function properly again like a normal human being. Neo tried to open his eyes at some point but noticed right after that his eyes hurt and asked Morpheus why it was so. He answered him by saying that his eyes hurt because You've never used them before. Plato explained in his allegory that right after a person realizes that they were only seeing the dancing shadows and not the reality that was outside, his eyes would normally hurt because they were used to the dark reality inside the cave. They perceived the reality inside the cave to be true because it was what their senses could perceive at the time. They had no knowledge that the real world was just outside the cave and that the reality they saw were only shadows casted by a fire inside the cave. Also in the allegory of the cave, the other people bound inside would not accept the fact that there is a greater and real reality outside of the cave. These people can be related to the people nowadays that would not dwell and analyse things more. This is so because they are already comfortable with the reality that they are living in now. They do not want to look at the greater possibilities to things outside of our reality today. This is also tackled in the book Sophies World where the author Jostein Gaarder relates these people to the people who are deep down inside the rabbits fur. They are people who are comfortable with the reality they are in. They no longer crave and lust for the endless possibilities awaiting our species. Sadly, these are also the people that criticise and persecute those that try to wonder about the possibilities and wander outside of visible reality. With all that was said, we can conclude that The Matrix is a movie that contains obvious hints of different philosophies. Many people can notice it and ponder upon it in different ways but I believe that we will still have the same conclusion. Not only did it make the movie smart but also interesting for starting philosophers and those that are also oblivious to it. They say that ignorance is bliss and what could be more worth wondering about than our own existence and the reality that we think is real.