"It's the question, Neo. It's the question that drives us. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did."
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 based 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
The two viewpoints brought to the table, it makes the movie, The Matrix, more
that just flashy eye candy, but a pathway on how to live life. The Matrix shows us a
different outlook on life and what it possibly could be. Neo (a character in the movie)
receives a dose of the unbelievable and is given the choice to explore what reality really
is. He of course has to adapt to this state of mind and decide what he believes. He is
constantly asked if the things he used to love really are what he...