Cartesian and Platonic Philosophical Themes in The Matrix

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Recommended: Constituents of the mind-body problem in philosophy

This essay will examine the philosophical questions raised in the movie The Matrix. It will step through how the questions from the movie directly relate to both skepticism and the mind-body problem, and further how similarly those problems look to concepts raised by both Descartes’ and Plato’s philosophies. It will attempt to show that many of the questions raised in the movie are metaphor for concepts from each philosopher’s works, and why those concepts are important in relation to how they are presented in the film. In this analysis, we will examine the questions of skepticism and the mind-body problem separately. Part one will examine how the film broached the subject of skepticism, and in doing so how it ties in to Descartes and Plato. Part two will analyze the mind-body problems as raised by the movie and how those problems hold true or not to Descartes’ and Plato’s ideas.

Part One: Skepticism and the Matrix

This student of Philosophy now sees the movie The Matrix in a whole new way after gaining an understanding of some of the underlying philosophical concepts that the writers of the movie used to develop an intriguing and well thought out plot. Some of the philosophical concepts were clear, while others were only hinted at and most likely overlooked by those unfamiliar with those concepts, as was this student when the movie first came out in theaters all those many years ago. In this part of the essay we will take a look at the obvious and not so obvious concepts of: what exactly is the Matrix and how does it related to both Descartes and Plato, can we trust our own senses once we understand what the Matrix is, and how Neo taking the Red Pill is symbolic of the beginning of the journey out of Pl...

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...nd, this student sees the writers picked and choose what they wanted to use from each philosopher’s works and ultimately like the essence of the Matrix, distorted the ultimate truths each philosopher sought out.

Works Cited

Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy (In Focus). Ed. Stanley Tweyman. London & New York: Routledge, 1993. Web. 29 Apr 2011.

Falzon, Christopher. Philosophy goes to the Movies: An Introduction to Philosophy. London & New York: Routledge, 2002. Web. 29 Apr 2011.

Plato. Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates. Salt Lake City : Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, 2004. Web. 20 May 2011.

Plato. The Republic. San Diego, CA: Icon International Group, 2005. Web. 30 Apr 2011.

Sanders, Steven M., ed. The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film. Lexington; KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. Web. 30 Apr 2011.

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