The Matrix, Plato And Descartes: A Comparison Of Reality And Illusion

Comparison amongst The Matrix, Plato and Descartes

The confusion between reality and illusion is consistent within the philosophies of Plato and Descartes and in the idea of the movie Matrix. Plato is known for his famous ‘Allegory of the Cave’ where he metamorphically opines that human beings are being kept chained in a cave (Mitchell and Lucas). The ‘reality’ that is shown to them is actually an illusion projected by those who control the important affairs of society such as the politicians and those who control the economic affairs of the State. He believes that these human beings should find out a way to break free of the chains and escape the cave. Once out of the cave, they will be able to see the actual ‘reality’ with their own eyes, guided by the light of the Sun (Friedlander). Descartes has a similar philosophy whereby he maintains that the human beings are, in reality, kept clouded in illusion (Descartes and Lafleur). He is of the view that certain malicious demons control this illusion, which affects the human beings. He questions the prevailing circumstances of society in this context (Williams). The movie Matrix is based along similar lines. Neo, a computer programmer finds out that the ‘reality’ which he believed to be true his entire life is, in fact, an illusion controlled by a super computer (Wachowski and Director). In all of these stories, the main aim by the authors and the producer is to show that there exists a conflict between the ‘reality’ that is perceived by human beings and the ‘true reality’.

However, there exists some major differences between them. Plato believed that human beings could only be free of the chains if it was so wished by the people controlling them (Friedlander). Descartes could never find out the truth as he began to question his own logic of reasoning (Descartes and Lafleur). Neo, in contrast, was able to find out ‘true reality’. However, in comparison to Plato, a character in Matrix named Cypher, wanted to stay in the illusive world (Wachowski and Director).

In his ‘Allegory of the Cave’, Plato believed that the human beings who were being kept chained in the Cave, would like to escape (Peterson). Inside the Cave, they only saw the illusions in the reflections of the shadows shown to them by their ‘masters’. In order to escape this, the individuals need to be free of their chains and see ‘true’ reality by coming out of the Cave. Plato was of the opinion that harsh reality, as compared to lukewarm illusion, is favorable to human beings (Friedlander). They wanted to have a voice on the issues affecting them. In the movie Matrix, the character of Cypher has been portrayed different. When he got to know about the cloud of illusion that had descended over humankind, he could not cope with this knowledge (Wachowski and Director). Thus, instead of fighting the hard battle to free himself from the clutches of illusion, he chose to be within its sweet embrace and spend the rest of life being controlled by someone else.

The harshness of reality is better than being in ignorance. The battle to win one’s freedom to see the reality can be immensely challenging, both within the self and with the eternal environment. Once the human body is suited to a certain way of life, it is very reluctant to change the prevailing situation. However, once people are in ‘true reality’, they can be the master of their own fate; no one else can exercise control over them. The freedom to choose one’s way of life is the most fundamental freedom guaranteed by nature itself. Being under the control of someone is a gross violation of this freedom. People should have the freedom to make decisions by themselves.

References:

Descartes, René, and Laurence J. Lafleur. Meditations on first philosophy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960.

Friedlander, Paul. Plato: An Introduction. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Mitchell, Basil, and John Randolph Lucas. An engagement with Plato’s Republic: a companion to the Republic. Routledge, 2017.

Peterson, Valerie V. “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: literacy and “the good”.” Review of Communication 17.4 (2017): 273-287.

Wachowski, A. and (Director). The Matrix [Motion Picture]. 1999.

Williams, Bernard. Descartes: The project of pure enquiry. Routledge, 2014.