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Rene Descartes In The Matrix

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Rene Descartes In The Matrix
With a movie like The Matrix, it is very easy to get caught up in the spectacle. Granted, the movie has special effects that were cutting edge for its time, and includes many elements of our modern high tech culture. However, it also has a much deeper and more philosophical side. When it was written, ideas were incorporated into it from a variety of sources. One of these sources was the first meditation of the French philosopher Rene Descartes. In this movie, what most people perceive as reality is no more real than a dream. This dream is created by a powerful being bent on deceiving humanity, but there are some members of humanity who choose to let themselves be deceived.
Neo experiences the same doubt about reality as Descartes when he talks about not being sure if he is awake or still dreaming. Descartes points out that there are no certain markings between the dream world and the waking one. After all, when one dreams, he is unaware that he is doing so, so it is impossible to rule out that what we …show more content…
Even Neo, the character the story centers around is clueless at the beginning. Only once he is confronted with the truth does he begin to doubt, but even then he attempts to deny it. Descartes ponders this in his meditations as well. He reflects on humanity's tendency to believe the uncertain based on comfort with the idea. Once someone is used to an idea, they tend to resist letting it go because it is so ingrained in them. He continues to state that one should treat any idea that can be doubted as being absolutely false so that no belief is built upon an uncertain foundation. However, some choose to go back to the comfort of believing that which is not true, such as Cypher deciding to go back to the Matrix. He chooses the comfort of the deception over the harsh truth, and opts to prolong his deceit. He conspires against humanity's freedom for his own personal
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