Plato And Descartes: A Comparative Analysis

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Compare and contrast The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes. What are some similarities and differences? The biggest similarity among The Matrix, Descartes’ musings and Plato’s cave analogy is that all three of these works doubt the reality of the world around us and raise the question of whether the reality we experience through our senses in tangible and objective, or is it just an illusion we create. The Matrix is the story about Neo who is thrown into this computer generated reality (“Synopsis: The Matrix,”, n.d.). Descartes discerns, since we are able to be deceived, we therefore could also be likely to be deceived about what is true reality and that we are all dreaming and our movements are an illusion (Descartes, …show more content…
Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here…why, oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?” (“Cypher”, The Matrix, Wachowski, 1999). His question is most definitely a valid question. If indeed this world we live in is one big dream why can’t we just stay asleep, rather than be woken up to a harsh reality that might be less comfortable than our dreams? In Plato’s Allegory of Cave, he states, “the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to the viewing of reality "(Plato, 514 – 518, The Republic, Book VII). As harsh as reality can be at times, in God’s eyes it is always more important than the ignorance of bliss. It is stated in the bible that it is our duty to be responsible of what is false and what is true reality (1 Peter 2:11). To choose a life of lies and deceit is to go against the life God has intended for us. So, in the eyes of God it would have been wrong to take the blue pill and spend your life living a lie instead of serving Him with the truth. In the end after living his ignorant life, Cypher learns the harshness of reality when he dies brutally (“Cypher”, The Matrix, Wachowski,

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