The big Question

What is reality? How do we know that what we are experiencing really is real,

rather than an artificial construct? And in fact everything we experience ultimately is a

construct, it is a construct of our brains, a way the brain makes and interprets

electrochemical neural signals from the senses, and the mind interprets the brain’s

interpretation. One would be hard pressed to find a philosopher nowadays who accepted

the ‘”naive realism” model of reality; that the reality in our heads really is an accurate

image or reflection of the Reality “out there”? This is a question pondered by the

philosopher and dualist Descartes, who asked how do we know there is not an “evil

deceiver” fooling us into believing what we experience is real. Descartes true answer, is

that one has to doubt everything but one’s own existence, and one’s own ability to think;

cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am.”). Opposing Descartes is a man by the name of

David Hume who declares, that as humans we can only make inferences bas

. . .
He is

constantly asked if the things he used to love really are what he had experienced or if

they are just figments of his imagination.

Hume on the other hand would not ask the question at all. The knowledge is that rational knowledge exists before experience, so if to

exist is to experience people must always have both sources of knowledge. Descartes, given his philosophy, would come about asking the question by

doubting everything and already accepting what the matrix is.

Morpheus though Neo was ready to know, and gave him a choice of two pills, red or

blue. The Matrix shows us a

different outlook on life and what it possibly could be. And as Neo learns to perceive how hidden code

shapes the apparently real world surrounding him. Neo (a character in the movie)

receives a dose of the unbelievable and is given the choice to explore what reality really

is.

To the film the matrix there is an entity that is deceiving everyone and hiding the

truth. ed on our

experiences of the past. We should doubt whatever it is we know and that reason and

rational judgments are merely habitual associations of distinct impressions or

experiences. In fact, one could go further and say that people are not alive as all life

reacts to its environment; by definition, and to react people must therefore be able to

perceive. Descartes convinced

himself that nothing really existed, no sky, no earth, no bodies. For example; what is a hamburger? The Matrix

has placed a name on it but is it really a hamburger? How does one really even know

what a hamburger is? Neo is inducted into the horrifying truth: that human beings are

unknowingly being force fed this virtual fantasy while their bodies are held captive in

gelatinous pods by bug eyed machines. She confronts him and begins

to speak to him about another person, whom Neo has been searching for, but really not

the person, but an answer to his question; what is the matrix? The two philosophers from

above, Descartes and Hume, would ask the question “what is the matrix” a little

differently.

Common topics in this essay:
Neo Descartes, David Hume, , Hume Neos, Descartes Hume, Morpheus Neo, Opposing Descartes, red pill, question matrix, real world, descartes hume, experience real, neo thinking, jump fell, descartes evil, ones own, free mind,

Approximate Word count = 1713
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Already a member? Click here