PHIL 201 Essay: Comparing The Matrix, Descartes, and Plato's Ideas

This essay delves into the philosophical concepts of reality and perception by analyzing the film "The Matrix," Descartes' Dream Argument from "Meditations on First Philosophy," and Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." The essay begins by summarizing the core ideas presented in "The Matrix," highlighting the film's exploration of simulated reality and the nature of consciousness. It then compares these ideas to Descartes' theory of the dream, which questions the reliability of sensory experience and proposes the possibility of an illusory world. Furthermore, the essay draws parallels between the Matrix and Plato's allegory, which illustrates how humans can be trapped in a world of shadows and illusions, mistaking them for reality. The analysis explores the similarities and differences between these philosophical perspectives, examining how each challenges our understanding of knowledge, truth, and the limitations of human perception. The essay also discusses the challenges in distinguishing between reality and illusion and the role of the mind and senses in shaping our understanding of the world.

Running head: THE DREAM AND REALITY
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Response to question no. 1
The Matrix revolves around the theory put forward by Hilary Putnam wherein he
proposes that we are bounded by our thoughts and our perceptions are deceived or rather altered
according to the way we are taught or educated to perceive them. The greater truth lies in the
establishment of the fact that should we rely on the senses alone to perceive or nature and make
our assumptions based only on the perception of our senses or are being deceived or manipulated
to think or perceive certain things in the way they are. As the movie Matrix depicts the way
Morpheus explains Neo about the confusion between reality and dream and tries to make him
understand the line of similarity that exist between the two, the similar descriptions and
consciousness and reality with respect to our perceptions have been stated by Plato and Descartes
in their famous works (Fedorova, 2016). As Descartes puts the Dream theory by stating that life
is similar to dream and we do have certain moments of awakening, we fail to realize it as
described in the Matrix (Paura, 2017).
The allegory of the cave is a discourse between Socrates and Glaucon where in Socrates
have tried to explain the situation of a life of a man with the allegory the cave where humans
facing a wall have been imprisoned since their birth without having options to move around and
see and behind them a huge fire is lit which is used to create illusions in the wall they face. As
put forward by Socrates, that these men imprisoned in the cave will perceive and define the
illusions within their capacity instead of knowing the truth (Friedlander, 2015). The similarity of
the allegory of the cave with Matrix lies in the false perception of the environment around us.
They state that the life we live are an illusion of the environment around us and that the real
meaning and it is important for us to decipher the meaning behind it. The major dissimilarity that

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can be observed with the Matrix and the Descartes’ perception about life is that though it is
similar to a dream but the understanding of the doubt is different as in Matrix the reality had
been perceived by Morpheus whereas Descartes states that the realization also can be doubted.
Response to question no. 4
We live a world that is mostly perceived by our physical senses. We believe in what is
apparent before us and we justify our environment with responses from our senses. As the
Matrix, or Pluto or Descartes puts it, the original realization of our consciousness needs to be
evoked. They have not stated how this realization my come, or the way we can perceive the truth
without our senses. In order to align to the perception of the reality with our consciousness, we
need to perceive it in some form. The perception either needs to happen with our subconscious
mind and a greater understanding of the mind is required to do so. For a layman to train his mind
to distinguish the reality from the illusion is not clearly stated. We need to understand that
perceptions of the environment in their apparent character will need some tool through which
these perceptions can be established and where our senses will not be deceived or manipulated.
The human mind needs a source through which this deceptive illusion can be either understood
or realized and then only then can the confusion of our conscious and subconscious mind be
brought into synchronistic harmony (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2016). Once this is achieved we can
assert clearly that the sense our environment differently and distinguish them through different
perceptions. Since this missing link cannot be understood clearly, we cannot help but rely on our
senses to deceive us further in understanding the metaphysical world around us.

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References
Bandyopadhyay, P. S., Brittan, G., & Taper, M. L. (2016). Descartes’ Argument from Dreaming
and the Problem of Underdetermination. In Belief, Evidence, and Uncertainty (pp. 143-
151). Springer, Cham.
Fedorova, K. H. (2016). The philosophy and religion of “the matrix”.
Friedlander, P. (2015). Plato: An Introduction. Princeton University Press.
Paura, R. (2017). Living in the Matrix: How a Scientific Conjecture was Turned into a
Conspiracy Theory. Messages, Sages, and Ages, 4(2), 18-30.