Rene Descartes 'Dualism In The Matrix'

Md, Muzahid
Mrs. Tourout, L.
HZT4U1-02
13-10-13
Philosophy Paper

The theory of dualism by Rene Descartes is shown in the movie "The Matrix". Descartes ' quoted "I think, therefore I am" defines that the proof of one 's existence is in the observation of what they thought, if one can think, he/she exists. The theory of dualism states that humans are made up of two substances, a material body and an immaterial mind, or "soul". Since the mind and body interact, there must be a contact between the two. An example of the theory is shown in the movie when the protagonist Neo is interacting in the Matrix, when Neo gets injured in the Matrix world, the real world Neo also gets affected. The avatar of Neo
in matrix world releases blood out of his mouth, the Neo in the real world also does the same.
When Neo questions about this matter to Morpheus, he states "your mind makes it real". To explain what Morpheus stated, Neo is physically in the real world, and also in the matrix world but their mind are the same. When the avatar gets affected in the matrix world, the mind makes you feel the experience in the real world also. Descartes believes in what he sees and feels while dreaming, he do not trust his senses to tell him that he is not still dreaming. He do not trust his senses and believes that the world is being controlled by an omniscient figure. That theory or belief is greatly exemplified in "The Matrix", the matrix is a virtual world created by omniscient figure, in this case they are artificial intelligence. Descartes states that he cannot trust the senses because one might be controlled. In "The Matrix", Morpheus explains that "if the five senses is what makes reality, then reality is only the electric signals that is sent to our mind to experience the senses. This process of experiences senses
is artificially created by the artificial intelligence. This shows how the humans are limited and basically imprisoned into a fake world to be blinded from what is actually happening. Another example in the movie would be when the protagonist visits the Oracle, he encounters a child who bends a spoon with his mind. When Neo asks the boy how he bent the spoon, the boy replied "Do not try and bend the spoon. That is impossible....only try to realize the truth"; the boy continues stating that the truth is there is no spoon and the spoon do not bend, it is just oneself that bends. This is an example of Descartes ' theory of dualism because the boy knew that the reality he lived in is false so he bent himself which is his mind to believe that the spoon was bending. The protagonist is told that the feelings and objects in the matrix world is not real but just a mere illusion, just as Descartes questions if the senses or all materials are real or unreal signals made by an external figure to distract us from finding out what is the actual reality. Descartes dream argument and doubt the evidence given to us by our sense that is strongly shown in the matrix. He believes that even if we feel absolutely sure that we are doing something, we may in fact just be dreaming that it is happening. In dreams we receive the same sensory information as in reality and Descartes felt there was no way of proving whether we were sleeping or not. The matrix also doubt the information given to us by our senses; “If real is what you can feel, smell, taste then ‘real’ is simple electrical signals interpreted by your brain”.
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