Comparison of the Matrix and Ideas of Plato and Descartes

Compare and contrast The Matrix with the reading from Plato and Descartes. What are some similarities and differences?

In comparing the Matrix and reading from Plato and Descartes one thing that they all have in common is that they try to figure out the truth in what they see. In the Matrix Neo comes to the reality that what he had believe his whole life about the world he live in was a big lie. And in Plato excerpt from The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates ask Glaucon that what do you say if what an individual thought was true was just a shadow and thus deceived them. What choice would the person make? Would they continue in ignorance and just be happy or would they face the harsh reality? In Descartes excerpt, Meditation it talks about how that he had given up on trying to understand life about what is true. Each of the writers have the same enquiry about what is real? How can we know every day if life is something real? What if natural life is all just a delusion? How can we prove that what we touch, see, taste, hear, feel and think is real? In our textbook reading it talks about inferences that we base our belief off what we have conclude in our thinking. Another thing that they have in common is that they all chosen to believe a lie.

The only difference that I can see is in Meditation hat he was the only one that was aware of what was going on from the beginning. In Descartes excerpt, he states that he sees no need to try to figure out what is true and that he is just going to enjoy his life. However, all of them are talking ab out different things but have the same problem with what is the truth.

Can we prove that the world we are experiencing is real? How do we know we are not dreaming, living in a Platonic cave, or trapped in some sort of matrix?

After reading these excerpts it made me start to think about how I feel sometimes about things that is going on around me. Sometimes I say to myself is this real or am I just dreaming and sometimes all it is a dream or from something I have seen on tv. There are times when I have dreamed about something and it end up coming true. How can I prove that it is real, I cannot because the world we see with our minds is not the ultimate world, whatsoever that maybe? Just because there is a basic realism does not mean that it is not real. The Bible states that God created the world and everything that is on it and I believe and have faith that it is true. The only utter truth about reality is that you cannot ever be certain about reality. The only reason we have tendency to believe what we see to be the total truth. Because our senses have not yet betrayed us, or given us any reason not to trust them. I think also we know that things are real because of our human body. If everything was an illusion then why do we bleed when we cut ourselves or feel pain when someone hits us. I do not think that God would not let us live in an unreal world. One reason is that if this world was not real then there would be no God. There would be no need for salvation or forgiveness of sin. One of the best example of how we can prove that we are not dreaming is According to Descartes, everything existing in us is an innate idea. Descartes believes in the existence of a benevolent God, who has provided us with senses and mind that cannot betray us. In showing that God exists in her Meditations, Descartes verifies that everything we clearly perceive is true since our God is not a deceiver (Descartes, 2008). Descartes additional used the law of adequate reality, which states that, in order to create something, the creator must have more reality than the creation to prove that God put the ideal in her (Descartes, 2008). Since God is the most real, then we can depend on on our sense's reality.

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