After reading The Matrix, and reading from Plato and Descartes, I find that there are some similarities and differences. Therefore, let’s begin with The Matrix and Plato, The Allegory of the Cave. The Matrix and Plato have the same similarities because they both tell of characters being in a world that what they was experiencing is an illusion or some kind of dream. Also, they were being deceived by what they saw, or by sight of the world that they thought they were living in.
However, in contrast, this seems to be in my opinion, that Plato’s The Allegory of the cave and The Matrix shows they had justified reasons or evidence to support their beliefs. Nevertheless, the Bible says, “ it is our duty to be responsible of what is false or what is true reality. ” In other words, except the truth or we will be held accountable for it. For this reason, Plato states,“ it was justified that the chained man in The Allegory of the cave to escape from bondage to seek true reality. ”
Fortunately, “ he looked back and saw that his sight had deceived him. Then, “ he realized that what he saw was not true. ” It was all false as well as true belief, according to some of the characteristics of the noetic structures, until he sees the sun for the first time. Furthermore, he learns to adjust to the sunlight, and he recognized the difference with certainty, firmness, and conviction. After that, Plato states, “ he goes back to get others and teach the others of the real world and how to adjust to it. ” Although, some of them wanted to go back to live in darkness. Likewise, there are some people in this world who are afraid to face the truth.
Instead of searching the Bible for knowledge to justify their true belief, they find pleasure living in darkness. Also, searching the Bible will give them good reason for believing in it. Especially, if they have good justifiable reasons to hold to a particular belief. In contrast to The Matrix, when one reads of how Neo was pulled into his dream of what he said was the real world inside The Matrix, he sees the real world for the first time and he had reasons to believe, and the evidence of everything that what he thought was real was only an illusion, as the shadows from the statues and the things on the wall from the cave.
In fact, Plato and Neo in The Matrix had motivation and an epistemic obligation. That is, to form their belief to feel responsible and obligated to try to take upon themselves to go back. But the difference with Neo in The Matrix is he had to fight the artifical beings in the the dream to save mankind from the enormous widespread of being ignorant and being deceived of a false reality Finally, when comparing The Matrix to Descartes, Meditation 1: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt, Descartes says, “ he wanted to be certain, and he wanted proof that his senses were not deceiving him.
He used a form of skeptical reasoning to consider if his world is experiencing is being deceived by an evil demon. In contrast, of The matrix, Neo sees his evil demons as the artifical beings that are deceiving him and the real world. However, in the Bible, it says, “ that evil demons exist in the world and they try to deceive us of our beliefs. ” That is why we should seek and find for ourself of what we see are hear is true, because there are false teaching out there of what is really true.
Also, we are held responsible for determining what is true and what is false, because the Bible has justifiable reasons and claims to what is true and what is false. To conclude, as for Neo, in The Matrix, the reasons for his beliefs is because of what he sees and feels in his dreams, while plugged into The Matrix. But for Descartes, he states, “ he cannot trust his senses to tell him that he is still not dreaming. ”
In fact, I have had dreams that I had doubt that it was true, and had to decide it I had reasons to believe if it was true. Further, Descartes says, “ his beliefs is based on a justified “ undoubtable” principle only. To begin with, Descartes states, “ his senses has fooled him before. ” That is, he cannot trust his senses to be true if he is having all those doubts. On the contrary, Neo in the Matrix and the man of Plato, Allegory of the cave, had good reasons to not reject what their senses were telling them. They felt their senses are realizable, as long as it was working correctly. Otherwise, they would have needed a “ defeasible” or reason to not believe. Overall, the similarities which Descartes and The Matrix is that they had solid reasons and a claim for their beliefs.
