The movie "Matrix" is drawn from an image created almost twenty-four hundred years ago by the greek philosopher, Plato in his work, ''Allegory of the Cave''.The Matrix is a 1999 American-Australian film written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. Plato, the creator of the Allegory of the Cave was a famous philosopher who was taught by the father of philosophy Socrates. Plato was explaining the perciption of reality from others views to his disciple Aristotle. The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave share a simmilar relationship where both views the perciption of reality, but the Matrix is a revised modern perciption of the cave. In this comparison essay I am going to explain the similarities and deifferences that the Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave shares.In the Matrix, the main character,Neo,is trapped in a false reality created by AI (artificial intelligence), where as in Plato's Allegory of the Cave a prisoner is able to grasp the reality of the cave and the real life. One can see many similarities and differences in the film and the allegory. The most important similarity was between the film and the Allegory is the perception of reality.Another simmilarity that the movie Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave shares is that both Neo and the Freed man are prisoners to a system. The most important difference was that Neo never actually lived and experienced anything, but the freed man actually lived and experinced life.
The perciption of reality is different for everyone. For example, I think that reality is something that is well natured and enjoyable, and another may say that reality, for them, is something they have to work hard and suffer for. The film Matrix shows perception of reality through Neo and...
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... the man may have felt hunger,pain and etc... he had not lived a life where he was a human who had controll of his realiy and did what he wished to do. The shadows and the fire is something he saw and when he went out, the sun struck his eyes it was blinding and all but he experinced something Neo never have experinced.
The Matrix modernizes the originality of the Allegory of the cave and adds a more feelings towards the question of reality and how others interperts it. The film and the Allegory have many similarities and differnces but they revolve around the same metaphysical question. Even thought they have many similarities and differnces but the important ones for me are: the film and the allegory's view on reality to others, Neo and the freed man are controlled and the final, the difference between Neo and the freed man are the experince of life.
The movie, "The Matrix," parallels Platos's Allegory Of The Cave in a number of ways. Similar to the prisoners of the cave, the humans trapped in the matrix (the cave) only see what the machines (the modern day puppet-handlers) want them to see. They are tricked into believing that what they hear in the cave and see before them is the true reality that exists. Furthermore, they accept what their senses are telling them and they believe that what they are experiencing is all that really exists--nothing more.
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...
...The Matrix” and Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” almost gives the idea that the movies writers may have had a lot of influence from Plato’s allegory. The creation of this movie gives and futuristic prospective of “The Allegory of the Cave” letting the people who have seen the movie think about reality and the truth. In conclusion, Plato’s story of the cave brings up many philosophical points and most significantly, addresses the topic of society’s role in our lives. On some level, we are all influenced by the thoughts and actions of everyone else, but at the same time, we as humans have the ability to question, make our own conclusions, and finally make our own choices.
In the movie, The Matrix there are many similarities with the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? One similarity is that of the matrices in both works. The movie has a matrix of dreams. According to the movie, humans are dreaming. Dreaming means that the reality humans think of, is not reality. The reality humans think of, is a dream. Confusing, isn t? An easier way of understanding this matrix is to think of human dreams. When humans experience dreams, it is not perceived as a dream until the dream ends. The movie exemplifies humans in the dream state of mind, similar to the dreaming stage. Neo is exposed to his real matrix. The matrix outside of his perceptual reality. He is able to perform with an incredible flexibility and high speed thinking. He is no longer dreaming, or as Neo called it, living. Neo has waken up. The book shares this matrix as well.
Let me briefly explain a simplified plot of The Matrix. The story centers around a computer-generated world that has been created to hide the truth from humans. In this world people are kept in slavery without their knowledge. This world is designed to simulate the peak of human civilization which had been destroyed by nuclear war. The majority of the world's population is oblivious to the fact that their world is digital rather than real, and they continue living out their daily lives without questioning their reality. The main character, Neo, is a matrix-bound human who knows that something is not right with the world he lives in, and is eager to learn the truth. He is offered the truth from a character named Morpheus, who proclaims that Neo is “the One” (chosen one) who will eventually destroy the Matrix, thereby setting the humans “free.” For this to happen, Neo must first overcome the Sentient Program agents who can jump into anyone's digital body. They are the Gate Keepers and hold the keys to The Matrix.
The storyline of the movie throws audiences immediately into the mystery behind “the matrix” from an objective person’s perspective. Neo, or Mr. Anderson as the evil Agents call him, is searching for an answer to a question he’s looked for all his life. He wants to know “what is the matrix?” Neo later learns from two new mysterious friends that the matrix is “the world pulled over your eyes.” In time, and with help from these friends Morpheus and Trinity, Neo learns the reality, or non-reality, of the matrix. He finds the truth of the world in which the human race is enslaved and is used as a power source for artificially intelligent computers, which took over the world long ago. At the prompting of Morpheus, Neo starts to wonder if he could be the one prophesied and destined to free the human race from the control of these sadistic computer programs.
In The Cave prisoners are chained, from birth, to face a wall within a dark cave. These prisoners have never had any interactions with the outside world. Their only understanding of the outside world comes from a bridge and a fire at their backs. When people, animals, or objects cross the bridge, the fire projects their shadows upon the cave wall which the prisoners are facing. To these prisoners, the obscure shadows which dance along the walls of the cave are the only “real” thing they know. To their brains, which have never experienced, seen, or came into any contact with anything in the outside world, this is reality. To the prisoners, reality is a jumble of dark shadows which occasionally move from one end of a cave wall to another. This is their perception of reality because it is all they have ever known. While The Matrix does not involve prisoners being chained to a cave wall, the ideas within it are very much the same as in The Cave. Neo, the main character in The Matrix, has unknowingly been living in the matrix his whole life. The matrix world is his reality much like the shadows on the cave wall are the prisoner’s reality. As the world outside of the cave is the true world for the prisoners, the true reality for Neo is the real world which exists outside of the matrix, which is a highly advanced
A Comparison of the Representation of the Future of The Matrix and Planet of the Apes
The Matrix, directed by the Wachowski sisters, is a film that discusses free will, artificial intelligence and poses a question: ‘How do we know that our world is real?’ This question is covered in the philosophical branch of epistemology. Epistemology is a component of philosophy that is concerned with the theory of knowledge. The exploration of reality is referenced in the film when Neo discovers he has been living in an artificial world called ‘The Matrix’. He is shocked to learn that the world in which he grew up is a computer program that simulates reality. The questioning of knowledge and its irreversibility provoked by The Matrix invites the audience to wonder whether their own world is an imitation of true reality, thus making it a
Millions of people flock to the movie theater year after year on a quest to be entertained. Even a mediocre movie has the ability to take the audience to another place, escaping the realities of their own life, if only for a mere two hours. Some movies are simply pure entertainment. And then, there are those movies that provoke conversation long after the film has been viewed. Dystopian themes are not new, and have historically provided a template to gage the course of human existence. The Matrix portrays a society where humans exist without freedom. The film is not only entertaining, but also thought provoking. It paints a world with two different dimensions, one with the mind numbing constraint of technology, the second with endless possibilities and free will. When closely examined, a world very much like today’s. The Matrix uses technology to dominate humankind, by implementing a socially stabilizing virtual reality program, thus warning that humanity’s obsession with technology can weaken the mind.
The Matrix, once being released was a world-famous film that involved a lot of thinking and the ability to interpret complex ideas. However, these two topics of fate and freewill were creatively and smartly submerged in this film. The pill, jujitsu and Oracle scene were three main examples of the effect this all had on The Matrix, however there were a few others scattered throughout the film. It remained to be quite a mysterious concept but gradually as more in-depth thoughts came to mind, it seemed to be quite interesting. By exploring these themes it forces us to think if we are in a Matrix and what are reaction would be like if we were to find out that the world we lived in was a fake, never our true reality.
The Matrix is a science fiction movie about artificial intelligence computers replacing mankind. I believe that this movie is a common type of display from the media is common paranoia so that they can get a reaction from people and sell their story. In the case of The Matrix, the movie dazzles people with awesome special effects using modern computer technology, which I find ironic. I find it self-conflicting and hypocritical for the media to use modern computer technology for their own good to show people how bad technology is. Amy Bruckman and Howard Rheingold would probably find this movie interesting in that it disagrees and agrees with certain aspects about their beliefs about the use of computers.
Jan Westerhoff, the author of Reality, A very short introduction called this the 1984 definition of reality. “Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the party, which is collective and immortal.” That is an acceptable definition but it isn’t broad enough. Jan Westerhoff also argues that reality is solid and tangible. He argues, “As Philip K. Dick put it, a real thing is one which, when stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Reality is, that no definition is brief enough to capture every aspect required to describe reality.
"Forms of life resemble what I call, 'realities'. Forms of life are always form of life forming. Realities are always realities becoming" (Mehan & Wood, Five Features of Reality, 65). What is Reality? Is reality what everyone believes in or does everyone have his or her own reality? Can your reality change what you believe in? Is reality a belief, or is it what you believe in your reality? Can your reality be right or wrong?
In conclusion both stories are similar in their ideas. The stories are about people searching for the truth so they can be free. At the end of Neos phone call is something that could have been said to the "puppeteers" in "The Cave." That he's going to show the people what they don't want them to see, A world without rules or control, a world without borders or boundaries and most importantly a world without them. There were many key points that I was able to relate and analyze in this story. I still have no doubt that this movie was based off Greek Philosophy and a great piece to choose. In the end both "The Allegory of the Cave" and The Matrix were both great stories or truth and freedom and what a person will do to find the truth and be free.