Skepticism or Justified True Belief Elizabeth McIver ID: L25662046 PHIL 201 B06 Spring 2018 Abstract How do the Matrix, Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, and Descartes’ “Meditation 1 of the Things of Which We May Doubt” compare and contrast to each other? Also, can we truly depend on our senses to aid us in our quest for knowledge?
Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.
The most evident similarities between the motion picture The Matrix, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Descartes’ Meditation is that these works question and inquires the truth of the World around us and raises doubt about the legitimacy of our feeling of recognition. In other words, all three pieces of work question what is real and what reality is. The Matrix is a film that goes up against the genuine and the part of a convoluted, fake digital reality. Before Mr. Anderson (Neo) revelation of the authenticity, Morpheus ask him, “Have you ever had a dream that you are so sure was real? What if you were able to wake up from that dream, how would you know the difference between that dream world and the real world?”
First off, one rhetoric that " The Allegory of the Cave" has is a metaphor. A metaphor is comparing two unlike things. The focal thought is, a few detainees were bolted into a give in and the couldn't escape. It speaks to that how much freedom is worth. In the event that you never had an opportunity to see the outside world, you just can envision what it resembles.
“An unexamined life is a life not worth living” - Socrates. Both ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory of ‘The Cave’ develops a question of reality and how the world is perceived. This can be closely connected to one of the great Greek philosopher’s sayings where an “unexamined life is a life not worth living”. Socrates states this due to the increasing number of citizens who lived their lives without questioning the world around them. ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory explore how when the world is properly examined the outcome is a new understanding and perception of life.
Within the story of Watchmen, multiple characters experience what Plato philosophized in the Allegory of the Cave. In order to understand how Plato’s allegory is used in context of Watchmen, one must first learn how Plato intended his philosophy to be interpreted. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a fictional narrative that revolves around the life of a prisoner in an unusual circumstance. This prisoner along with others have been locked underground since childhood.
Like Larson’s play, Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ has similar themes. However, instead of using the lens of homelessness, Plato demonstrates his literary genius by building a story in which Socrates starts setting a scenario for Glaucon—Plato’s brother. In this story there are prisoners who have been locked in a cave since birth. The prisoners cannot
As such, both Plato and Descartes and, more importantly, their ideas are omnipresent in The Matrix Trilogy, especially in the first installment of the series. The concept of the matrix, must be viewed as Plato’s cave, an illusionary world in which human beings are kept obedient and oblivious by the machines. Just like in Plato’s text, in which one of the prisoners breaks free from the cave and eventually comes back to teach those still chained, about the real world outside, main protagonists in the movie are also tasked with freeing each individual from the matrix. Similarly, the matrix is unknowingly described by Descartes in his 1641 book, Meditation on First Philosophy. In the case of Descartes, the matrix are his dreams, which he perceives
“Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exist in the soul already;” (Plato). Spoken by Socrates in reference to the philosophy of life, this quote depicts the meaning of broadening our horizons in order to gain knowledge and escape the shackles that confine us in the form of deceit. This quote is portrayed in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” as the prisoners detained in the cave are deluded by their perception of reality, and the prisoner that escapes loses that distorted world and becomes enlightened. The cave is a representation of the hidden lies in which the prisoners are provided as the premises of their knowledge and are restrained from the truth to remain ignorant. Ultimately, one of the prisoners discovers that the world in actuality is
3. In the Video of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, there is Plato's story of the cave: “It is the task of the enlightened, not only to ascend to learning and to see the good, but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, withier they are worth having or not. And this they must do even with the prospect of death.” (Plato) Please comment on this video and this
An individual’s life journey is linked to the process of enlightenment, which can be achieved when one realizes the world they have been dwelling in is an illusion and is not under their own control. The science-fiction movie The Matrix, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Golden-Globe award winning film The Truman Show all have the same underlying theme of escaping an artificial reality. “The Allegory of the Cave” is a dialogue that criticizes human perception. In the dialogue, prisoners draw a parallel between the dwellers in the cave who believe the shadows on the walls are real to humans who believe in perceptions based on empirical knowledge.
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a conversation between his former teacher and an unknown person named Glaucon to lay out this deep and complex extended metaphor. This intricate metaphor is a step by step representation of how one could achieve true comprehension of the world around them. In this, there are four stages one must complete. The first stage is when the people are shackled in the cave, and he/she is required to use imagination to come to conclusions about the realities of life. When the ex-captives break away from the manacles and see the light from inside the cave is known as the second phase, and this is where one tries to define instead of imagine.
In said cave, there are prisoners who have been seeing shadows all of their lives. The Allegory of the Cave reflects one of Plato’s most revered philosophical tenets:
To begin, Socrates begins by communicating the idea that people are taught false truths early on. For example, “From the beginning people like this have never managed...to see anything besides the shadows that are [continually] projected on the wall” (Plato). The significance of this quote is that it says “from the beginning”. What Socrates means is that people grow up being taught the same thing and being told that their is one thing to believe in. Specifically, in the allegory, Socrates is speaking to Glaucon about the shadows projected on the wall.
The Allegory of the Cave is a brilliant writing by Plato that really puts into perspective how we are living as a part of a materialistic and consumer society. The darn thing was written almost 2,500 years ago, and considering the fact that the allegory is still relevant today, Plato’s allegory is surprisingly very close to what contemporary society is like. His arguments are undoubtedly strong since he patches all his arguments well to lower any possibilities of counter arguments, but there is still room for doubt. Also, even with those weaknesses, the prisoners in the allegory are still indisputably similar to the people of today, and the cave doubtlessly like the modern society. In this essay, I will discuss some of Plato’s strength and weaknesses in his arguments as well as how the allegory still applies to the current people and society.
