Matrix is a movie which contains substantial philosophical content. The main goal of the Paper is to evaluate how the film raises questions like those of Plato and Descartes philosophy. The movie is futuristic than Plato and the French philosopher Rene Descartes in the 17th century. Matrix portrays human life as a fascia and that the world is an illusion. The movie demonstrates that there is a connection between the reality and the human senses. People lead their lives in pods whereby their brains are fed with a sensory stimulus which gives them the illusion of having normal lives. Descartes was a firm believer that human beings could have a sound mind, think for themselves and apply intelligence in their lives. He was a skeptic that his sensory experiences lie and fail to match reality. Descartes used the Wax Argument to demonstrate skepticism about the unreliability of one’s senses. Senses give individuals the ability to touch, smell and see among other functions. The philosopher emphasizes the intellectual autonomy of man and highlights that a person must use his mind and not his senses to gather information. He doubted his precepts and the information he gathered via his thoughts. He says that all that is true as well as assured to him have been learned through the senses. Descartes further confesses that his feelings at some point misled him and pieces of advice that it is not sensible to trust our senses fully for what a person perceives is what he/she sees. The philosopher declares that it is only the mental process of deduction that a person can get real knowledge about the world. He constructs a system of philosophy which indicates that one cannot rely on perception as a means of acquiring information. Descartes's conundrum demonstrates that ‘absolute’ truth does not exist since most of the knowledge humanity acquires enough to explain the globe. He defines truth concerning doubt in his famous dictum ‘cogito ergo sum’ which means I think, therefore I am. This implies that Descartes believed that an individual could never be fooled about his existence. He never doubted his existence since the ideology of thinking, doubting and perceiving it was an assertion of his existence.
Notwithstanding, Descartes used methodological skepticism which supported his philosophy such that he doubted all that could be questioned as a basis of setting a foundation for factual knowledge. In his opinion, absolute truth does not exist because much of acquired knowledge is necessarily enough to explain the world. Humanity lives in a Matrix despite our senses and brains deceiving us about the nature of reality. The senses deceive us by providing limited information on which a person’s perception of truth is focused while the brain uses the information on construction models globally. It is our understanding of the nature of reality that deceives man. Descartes propounds that our perception is false and at the same time a far-fetched idea to trust one's senses. It leads him to the principle of reality which is a representational model of the world as generated by numerous neural circuits acting in parallel. Matrix depicts the theory of truth whereby what one feels, tastes, sees and smells is not reality but a symbol of electrical signals interpreted by one’s brain. A lot of people do not differentiate between fact and appearance. Real is an electrical signal as it is understood by the brain. Based on the definition of real mentioned before, the movie is a deception, and there is a distinction between reality and appearance.
Free Will
The movie raises the philosophical question on whether free will exists. Skeptics argue that one can never know for sure what the world represents. However, according to Plato the world as we perceive it is more real than it is viewed by people in Matrix. In the lens of Plato knowing the shape of an object is not adequate for a person to comprehend it fully. The only way to see the form of an object is through direct experience. Matrix brings to the viewer’s attention various theories on free will portrayed by different characters. For instance one of the characters Neo breaks loose from chains and bondage. Consequentially, he is faced with real objects which cast shadows, yet they are actual objects of reality. Neo’s action is similar to Plato’s allegory of The Cave where humankind is held in bondage. The people have no option but to stare at a wall where shadows are cast.
On the contrary, those who attempt to run away from captivity are met with hostility since nobody wants to believe their extreme ideologies. The escapees are forced to go back to the community and push them to perceive the truth as they do. Similarly, in Matrix Neo takes upon himself the duty of freeing the rest of the human race from the enforced false reality they are confined within. He does not believe in fate but being in charge of all that he does. Matrix is embodied with fatalism and the concept of free will. Fatalism brings forth that some things are bound to happen no matter the circumstance. In other words, some occasions in the world are fated. It is the belief that anything would occur which appears dreary in the movie. For example, Morpheus maintains that everything starts with a choice, but some events are unavoidable such as the Oracle's prophecy. Also, of significance is the causal determinism of the Merovingian who does not believe in fate or free will. He thinks that causality is the reason why people have moments in life ( Muller " Placek, 2018). In his view, things happen in life due to cause and effect and not fate or doctrine of free will. Free will entails acting according to an individual’s intent without any obstruction from any external influence. This answers the question that human beings have a free will regardless of whether they have a determinism or libertarianism concept.
The mind: Body problem
Matrix raises the question of the mind-body problem which is the aspect of the relationship between the mind and the brain. The critical issue is whether the brain is still the mind or are the two separate? In the movie the world is portrayed as an illusion since it links an individual’s brain to a computer system. The implication is that the brain and mind are the same things such as thinking of Zion/ seeing an Agent is similar because it means having one’s neurons directed in a particular manner. Unlike mind-body materialism where mind and brain are one, in mind-body dualism, the body and brain are two separate entities(Oxford University, 2012). A case in point is Neo when he finds himself in Mobil Avenue even when he is not plugged in an indication that he is not only in his brain. The philosophy of mind-body is paramount from the 17th century to date. It is by mind-body that a person can be conscious of nature and perceive the world given Descartes.
Additionally, the immaterial mind is not subject to physics laws, but the material body is subject to the regulations in what Rene describes as Cartesian Dualism. Cartesian dualism which is disputed by some, highlights that interaction between the body and mind happens in the pineal gland of the brain. It is the mind that causes the body to act such that perceptions are transmitted from the body to the mind. This is a vivid indication that the mind is not just a brain.
In conclusion, the truth is a requirement of Descartes trademark of strict knowledge. Knowledge whether complete or in perfect certainty calls for lack of doubt/ inability to undermine one’s intuition. Descartes portrays himself as a philosopher who comprehends doubt as a contrast of certainty. As his certainty increased, his suspicion decreased and vice versa which is a version of the justified accurate belief evaluation of knowledge dating back to Plato. He represents epistemological modernism as he emphasizes doubt rather than certainty. The movie Matrix demonstrates that the actions of a human being have no real consequences in a world that exists freely of a person’s mind.
References
Oxford University. (2012). Mind. JSTOR, 1-50.
Thomas Muller " Tomasz Placek. (2018). Defining Determinism. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Volume 69(1), 215-252.
