Matrix and the Myth of the Cave mix between movie and philosophy

Essay by hsbHigh School, 11th gradeB+, February 2004

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Can Anything Be Real?

Reality is recognized and understood through our senses, however, how can we know if our senses are right or wrong? Viewers of The Matrix can easily identify with this question due to the movie's unique approach on reality. The Matrix, is a rare movie that dramatically express's the view that what one sees may not depict what true reality is. The movie shows the life of a hacker named Neo, who has a steady job and lives in an apartment; essentially he has a normal life. However, he soon meet's a character named Morpheus, who enlightens Neo by showing him he has been living in a computer generated world which is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Meaning Neo's life up to this point is understood as a lie, it did not happen, it was not reality. With this understood it is hard to imagine what is reality, can one really know or prove that this world is real or is it generated such as the Matrix that Neo was living in? These are, at the core, the fundamental questions that humans live on even though it cannot be proved nor answered.

It is however been conversed through years of philosophical understandings such as the book crafted many years ago by the Greek philosopher, Plato, which was called The Allegory of the Cave.

Though both stories were made many years apart, Plato's story of the Allegory of the Cave intertwines with the idea behind The Matrix. Firstly, Plato's begins the story by describing a dark underground cave where a group of people chained from an early age with their faces towards the wall reside. Due to this, their view of reality is shaped differently; their limited view from the cave is what they make of...