In this essay I evaluate the movie the Matrix (1999) and the philosophical issues raised by the movie as they relate to Plato and Descartes philosophies on reality. The movie, The Matrix (1999) presents a world not of reality, but a world of deception; like the philosophers Plato and Descartes have presented in their righting in Plato’s “The Republic” and Descartes “The Meditations”. Just as those in The Matrix never see the world as it really is, Plato presents the idea that the world we see is but a shadow of what really exists. Descartes questioned whether reality was real and not just a dream. Descartes concluded that he could not rely on his senses to provide him with proof that the world even exists. How do we know are dreams are not …show more content…
Socrates describes manufactured objects that are put in front of the fire to cast a shadow on the wall of the cave. Socrates says “Such prisoners would hold that the shadows (of the manufactured objects) which they see moving on the wall, as their only realities.” (Wright,J.H). In the movie, The Matrix, and the Allegory of the Cave by Plato share very similar concepts of “Waking up” from the false reality that they have been there since birth. In the Movie, The Matrix, when the main character Neo portrayed by Keanu Reeves , takes the red pill given to him by Morpheus, that will awaken him from the Matrix. Upon awakening, Neo finds that his is naked, bald, and in a capsule filled with red liquid. Neo asks, “Why do my eyes hurt?” Morpheus responds, “Because you never used them before.” In the Cave we see the similarity of breaking the chains which have enslaved the men in the cave since birth, and Neo waking up from the illusion which he has been enslaved to since birth. When someone “Awakens” from cave Socrates says “…He would be puzzled at first and would regard his former visions of shadows as truer than the actual objects now force upon his attention…” (Wright.J.H). Socrates then says that after waking up, “If then he were dragged up reluctantly up through