Compare And Contrast Descartes And The Truman Show

Could all of reality be a dream? Discuss, with reference to Descartes’ Meditations and a relevant film or novel of your choice.

Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy poses the idea that the world we are familiar with is a constructed reality created within our minds and that we lack evidence to prove otherwise. The idea that our reality could simply be a dream is also present in the film The Truman Show, which follows the title character’s realisation that he has been living in a reality television show. Both Descartes and the eponymous character of Truman go through episodes of self-discovery which leads them to new ideas of reality and existence. Descartes’ belief is that our reality must be questioned; this is similar to the way that Truman begins to question his. Meditations on First

Philosophy’ guides the reader along in asking whether our reality is as we know it or simply a figment of imagination, as does The Truman Show, in which Truman’s reality is literally constructed and not real. Descartes presents further arguments for our reality being a dream, as well as suggesting why this may be occurring: an Evil Demon. In The Truman Show, this idea presents itself when protagonist finds himself being deceived by the God-like figure of Christof. The idea that reality could be a constructed or contained within our minds as a dream is laid out well in both Meditations on First Philosophy and The Truman Show.
Both Descartes and Truman find themselves living contently in a reality that may be false.

The First Meditation of Descartes’ work deals with this idea, suggesting that what we are convinced is reality could just as easily be a dream. He says of this:

“How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events – that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire – when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! […] All this would not happen with such distinctness to someone asleep. Indeed! As if I did not remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar that’s while asleep!”

Here, Descartes is acknowledging that he has an inability to distinguish between dreams and reality; there have been many times when he has been convinced that his dream is his “true” life. Likewise, in The Truman Show, the title character finds himself happily living without question in his “reality”, which is an artificial set, including characters playing Truman’s friends and family who know of the truth of the situation. Christof, the creator of the set and show, at one point acknowledges this:

“We accept the reality of the world with which we are

presented”.
Truman’s “reality” is thus nothing more than a kind of dream, except Truman’s awakening is not literal, but instead a realisation that the world he was convinced of is false. With both of these demonstrations it is clear to see what Descartes is suggesting – we are often tricked by our minds in regards to what is “real”. However, he also makes the argument that there must be at least a small figment of truth in what we experience – it could not have come from nothing.
“[…] the vision which come in sleep are like painting, which must have been fashioned in the likeness of things that are real. […] For even when painters try to create sirens and satyrs with the most extraordinary bodies, they cannot give them natures which are new in all respects; they simply jumble up the limbs of different animals.”
By this reckoning, is it suggested that while we cannot be certain that reality is not a dream, we can be certain that what we know must have come from somewhere. Thus, there must be some kind of truth in our lives that we can determine, and if there is that truth, there must be something “real” in our reality. While there is a different circumstance in The Truman Show, the viewer can see this idea in the reality that has been created for the protagonist – it is based on basic suburban life without many abnormal qualities. It is, essentially an authentic life that becomes false, in a similar way to Descartes’ epiphany. Therefore, both forms of this idea here can be said to be demonstrating that life is a dream; however, they also acknowledge there must be some form of reality within this that must be sought out.
Reality thus begins to fall apart when it becomes clear that something is amiss in what we have trusted to be real. In Truman’s case, this is obvious when a light falls down from the top of the studio and lands near him; there are also several other incidents like this, for example, when he is listening to the radio and hears the voices of those working in the hidden studio. Descartes has a more subtle realisation, understanding that his body and environment may only be true as long as they are in his mind and he is apparently perceiving them. However, he comes to the conclusion that whatever amount in his life may be false, he at least knows that some form of him is true since he has the ability to think of it.
“[…] if I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed. […] I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.”
Therefore, regardless of how false our reality is – there is a definite truth in that we are real, because we can ask whether we are. Even if our reality is blurred by an inability to perceive the truth, it doesn’t mean that the fact that we have thoughts to do this with is false. In The Truman Show, Truman certainly still knows that he is real, just that everything and everyone around him is part of an act. So from this we can gather material to suggest that, if reality is a dream, at least we know that our ability to have thoughts is not.
We must also ask where these thoughts are coming from, if they are the only apparent thing we can place our faith in. Descartes suggests that there is an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God that gives us these thoughts; this figure is represented by the character of Christof in The Truman Show. Descartes idea is that this God is inherently good and to deceive us would act against his perfection.
“[…] God would not allow me to be deceived in this way, since he is said to be supremely good. But if it were inconsistent with his goodness to have created me such that I am deceived all the time, it would seem equally foreign to his goodness to allow me to be deceived even occasionally.”
Here, Descartes is admitting that he believes that God is too impeccably good to allow us to be deceived by our reality. However, this is not argued well – for example, if there are imperfect thoughts in our reality, by Descartes’ reasoning, they could only have been created by God, who is supposed to be perfect. This suggests that either God is not perfect, as he can imagine imperfect things, whereas a truly perfect and good being would only be able to produce good things, or that Descartes definition of God is flawed. Furthermore, if we are imperfect beings and God is not, we cannot have to ability to perceive what his perfection and goodness may be, so we cannot know whether he is fully good or perfect. Regardless of which of these may be seen as more fitting, it becomes clear that Descartes does not argue well for a “true” reality under the idea of God and leaves the reader unfulfilled in the idea that reality is not a dream. In The Truman Show, Christof has groomed and deceived the protagonist from birth, convincing him of a false reality. This idea of an omnipresent being controlling our moves in a giant, controlled environment is not dissimilar to Descartes’ argument of the “Evil Demon” ; a God-like being that deceives us from our conception, which he, as shown before, argues better for that against. Thus, reality may be a dream, and to believe Descartes’, somewhat weak, argument about how to be deceived by a supremely good being means that reality must be real, seems like a feeble answer to this question.
In conclusion, it would appear that reality may be a dream. Based on the ideas a Descartes that are shown in modern interpretations such as the film The Truman Show, there appears to be evidence philosophically that the reality we interpret to be true is only within our minds. This can be questioned when we realise that we are perfectly content in dreams as we are when we awake from them, our senses appear to be the same in both and we can contentedly live in a false reality, just as Truman does. However, there is an idea that since we can even think this that our thoughts must hold some truth – that we certainly exist regardless of how false the world around us may be. However, to suggest that there may be an all-powerful God, who by definition is good and thus cannot deceive us, and therefore our reality is true, seems a very weak argument to a tremendous question. Thus, we must consider that our reality may disappear when we are not actively thinking about it and that this world may be false, however true our ability to think is.