Calen Foster
PHIL 201-B01
1. All three sources (The Matrix, and the writings of Plato and the writings of Descartes) all
have a common theme: reality isn’t as it seems. The Matrix is about someone whose reality is
completely made up by someone who is somehow able to control what that person experiences
through their senses (Wachowski). Hearing a story like this poses the question of whether or
not our senses are reliable. Is what we can see, taste, smell, feel, and hear actually reality? Or
are we somehow manipulated into seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling, and hearing what someone
else wants us to? What is our true reality?
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave questions what we can perceive about reality. He tells a story
of prisoners who are chained in a cave with their backs to a fire. All that they ever see is the
shadows that dance on the wall in front of them instead of the actual objects that are in front of
the fire that’s behind them (Plato). According to the story, one prisoner gets free and is able to
see the things behind him and go outside into the real world and see things for what they really
are, but when he comes back to tell his friends about all they’re missing out on, they don’t
understand or believe him (Plato). Plato then concludes that when a person has been in the
dark and accepting shadows as reality, that they must gradually learn reality…it would be too
much for them to see reality as it is all at once (Plato). This makes us question what we see. Can
we trust our eyes? Is what I see actually real, or is it a shadow of something greater?
Descartes’ work (in my opinion) is more like the Matrix storyline than that of Plato’s
Allegory of the Cave. In his work, Descartes basically talks about how when we dream, it seems
so real that it could be our actual reality (Descartes). He seems to believe that there may be a
parallel universe that is better than what we see in the universe that we see (this is where it
seems to line up more with the story of the Matrix).
All three stories seem to point to the same general conclusion: we can’t rely on our
senses to give us an accurate depiction of reality. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners
simply have to turn around and see reality or be enlightened by someone who has seen reality
to realize that what they’ve always seen as real isn’t actually real, whereas in the Matrix and
Descartes’ writings, there is some sort of alternate universe that holds “reality” but we can’t
really seem to reach it ourselves.
2. Based on the mindset of these three stories, no we cannot prove that our reality is
actually real. As a human, I am restricted to what my senses tell me. But, we know that our
senses can be deceived. But, we also know that there are a lot of things that we can’t prove
beyond a shadow of a doubt, but we still believe they exist. Even though I can’t prove that God
exists, I also can’t prove that He doesn’t exist. While I can’t prove that what I can see with my
eyes is real, I also can’t prove that it isn’t real. If God is real, then why would He allow us to live
in a universe that is not real?
Sources:
Wachowski, Andy, and Lana Wachowski. The Matrix. Directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana
Wachowski. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999.
Plato, Republic, Book VII, 514A1–518D8
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641
