The Matrix, Plato's Cave Analogy, And Descartes

Have you ever awaken from sleep questioning your dream due to it feeling so real? In the Matrix,Plato’s cave analogy, and Descartes are three pieces of work that question “reality”, and how we know it's real. We grow up learning from higher people what is true but never seem to challenge if it is really true. Often times we allow ourselves to be bonded to a false reality, instead of experiencing things first hand and allowing us to form real truth. We could easily be deceived without knowing it. All three works share many similarities and differences, and share a reality where deception plays a main role. All three works share common themes, such as, experience, illusion and how reality can easily be deceived from truth.

The Matrix reality is all ran simply by a computer. Neo, the main character lives in the computer generated reality but frees himself unlike the other people who continually are letting the computer run them. The computer is so powerful that it literally holds the minds of all the people, deceiving them of a reality that is not true. This can be compared to the prisoners in Plato’s cave analogy who are only know of one reality and allows it to run their mind. One difference between The Matrix and Plato’s cave analogy is the prisoners believe what they see without it being forced, whereas The Matrix is actually forced into the people’s mind.

Descartes shared in his work, “ I think therefore I am” as Neo understood that when he escaped the matrix that everything was just a deception that was created through the computer to make people be controlled.

Descartes was strong in his ideas that the world is so powerful that it can “alter perceptions of life”, which was seen in both the Matrix and Plato’s cave

analogy.

Whereas in Plato’s cave analogy the prisoners are the main characters whose reality takes place in a cave. The reality is seen a semi-realistic way. The prisoners are held hostage, and see shadows on the wall from the outside world. They never seem to question the shadows, but simply believe is true due to first hand experiencing. They believe the shadows are actual reality, which is true but the size and figures are different in the outside world but they do not know of the outside world. This is known as Plato’s first level. One of the prisoners frees himself from bondage and escapes out into the world, and for the first time gets to experience the true reality. The free prisoner goes back to tell the others who are still in bondage of his experiences, but they do not believe them due to only believing their first experiences, the shadows on the wall.

Both Plato’s cave analogy and The Matrix share from the beginning a world where Neo and the prisoner both knew they did not belong. They both had a hard to escaping the worlds they were in. Both worlds shared a reality that took understanding and experience to escape. In conclusion, we do not know what is true reality in the world we live in. Both Plato and Descartes have opened my eyes that I need to explore and learn firsthand what I believe is true, instead of allowing a false reality to take control of my life. What kind of reality are you going to allow?

Can we prove that the world we are experiencing is real? How do we know we are not dreaming, living, in a Platonic cave, or trapped in some sort of matrix?

Although the world we live in a harsh one, with lots of deceiving and lies. I stand firm on knowing that the world I live in is not a matrix or a platonic cave.