The Ideas Of Reality In The Film, The Matrix

The Matrix conveys beliefs that both philosophers, Plato and Descartes have in the idea of reality, through a computer generated “reality.” Plato and Descartes convey their ideas of reality in two diverse ways in their work. Descartes believes that our senses such as smelling, touching, tasting, hearing, and seeing should be questioned. Plato used Socrates and Glaucon to portray his beliefs that our reality could be explained as being simply shadows.
In the film, The Matrix and both readings we learn more about the different views in regard to the idea of reality. After reviewing the three pieces of work we begin to question if the idea of reality is simply an illusion or if it is actually a real idea that we can trust. In The Matrix Neo
found that his life was not reality, it was a computer-generated life where people lived virtual lives. This theme directly correlates with Plato’s writing, “The Allegory of the Cave,” where he explains the prisoners only reality is the shadows of things passing by the cave. Both pieces lack the idea of the real world, they believed in these illusions of reality when in fact it was not the reality at all. Each story the characters had valid reasons to believe that their reality was real. In our world we believe our sun, mood, and Earth are valid reasons, how does this make us any different?
In the literature written by Descartes, we read that he had no reason to believe that his reality wasn’t real. He believed that his senses were correct and truthful. Later he explains that maybe the belief that reality can be explained through senses is incorrect. The reading describes thoughts of the sky, Earth, and air to possibly be an illusion in a dream. This theory relates to The Matrix in the sense that Neo could feel something wasn’t right. He knew that there is more than what he knows, and later he found that he indeed was correct. His world was a computer- generated life. In this writing, the character felt that he was missing something. Although, all of the proof was there he felt something else was to be known, he then found that life could simply be a dream.
After reading all three of the readings, we begin to question whether our reality is simply an illusion.
We have a challenging time showing any proof, when our proof can easily be another dream or computer- generated life. Typically, people would say that our Earth, sun, and air are prime examples of proof but we should know that these indeed could be computer- generated just like The Matrix. Our reality could be a dream in which we are all living in. Our main proof should be that no one has been able to claim another idea of our reality. No one has visited any other idea of our reality other than the one that we are all living in. We have little to no proof that there is any other reality to believe in other than ours. We have the sun and air as proof, but no proof that there is another type of reality. As Christians, we also turn to the Bible as proof of our reality. This book explains everything we as humans don’t understand and it always seems to be true. I believe that God created each person individually and created the world for us to thrive in. Although, it is hard to wrap our minds around the idea that our reality may not be the true reality as it seems, as Christians we should follow the scripture, “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on
earth.”