Comparing Plato, Descartes, And The Matrix

Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Compared and Contrasted and
Other Various Contemplations Regarding Reality
Liza Cheek
Liberty University

Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Compared and Contrasted and
Other Various Contemplations Regarding Reality
The Matrix movie had many similarities with the readings from Plato and Descartes. All three discussed the scenario in which reality was discovered to be a non-reality. Specifically, in The Matrix, reality that was experienced by multitudes of people is actually a computer simulation called “The Matrix”. This is actually a deviation from the Plato and Descartes readings in that computers were not mentioned or available at the time of those writings. Plato (380 BC) speaks of people having their “legs and necks fettered from childhood”, while a source of the restraint is not specifically mentioned, it is most certainly a physical restraint as opposed to the material, computer generated reality as described in The Matrix movie.
Plato speaks to the initial shock of discovering that known reality is actually a lie and goes on to speak of the resulting repercussions of this discovery. The denial of the true reality is so tangible that the people in the described scenario would rather believe that the lie was real than to believe and accept what they were actually experiencing. In The Matrix movie (1999) Morpheus asks “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real?” Similarly, Descartes (1641) also contemplates how often he dreamt that he was in familiar circumstances, dressed and by a fire, only to realize that he was undressed and lying in