Hi
Hope you enjoyed the clip from the Matrix. Plato explores the idea that the real world is an illusion in the allegory of the cave in The Republic. Plato imagines a cave in which people have been kept prisoner since birth. To what extent did the Matrix clip explain Plato's allegory of the cave? Would you go down the rabbit hole (or leave the cave)? What do you think of Aristotle's solution to the problem of finding the ultimate truth?
FYI: Neo hides his illegal software inside a book by Jean Baudrillard entitled Simulacra and Simulation. Originally published in 1981, Baudrillard’s book argues that late-twentieth-century consumer culture is a world in which simulations or imitations of reality have become more real than reality itself, a condition he describes as the “hyper-real.”
Morpheus introduces Neo to the real world by welcoming him to “the desert of the real,” a phrase taken from the first page of Simulacra and Simulation. With this notion in mind, the Matrix films can be interpreted as a criticism of the unreal consumer culture we live in, a culture that may be distracting us from the reality that we are being exploited by someone or something, just as the machines exploit the humans in the Matrix for bioelectricity.
Thoughts?
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Baudrillard argues that the modern world lacks meaning to its communications, that technological changes have lead to meaning becoming self-referential and that this has reduced or destroyed the “real”. According to [http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/11356/Jean-Baudrillard.html], however, he has a distinct refusal to say what he means directly. Accordingly, his claim “the real no longer exists” seems to be a generalization of his thoughts, or at the very least trying to say many things with very few words. This condition seems to be exactly what he is criticizing in modern society, the lack of distinct meaning behind communications.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading Simulacra and Simulations, however, it is easy to apply Baudrillard’s statements to the more immediate physical world, where they seem to represent a crisis of being unable to resolve a desired Platonic world-view in an industrial (or information) age. [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html]
A more literal take on the word simulation in Baudrillard’s work leads to a world like that in The Matrix or even The Truman Show (which rapidly leaves the scope of this discussion). With the less literal interpretation in mind, the idea that the Matrix films are a “criticism of the unreal consumer culture we live in” becomes quite clear.
Plato and Baudrillard also appear to have similar views when it comes to imagery. This is expressed particularly well in the following paragraph (also taken from the excerpt at Stanford linked earlier):
“It can be seen that the iconoclasts, who are often accused of despising and denying images, were in fact the ones who accorded them their actual worth, unlike the iconolaters, who saw in them only reflections and were content to venerate God at one remove. But the converse can also be said, namely that the iconolaters possesed the most modern and adventurous minds, since, underneath the idea of the apparition of God in the mirror of images, they already enacted his death and his disappearance in the epiphany of his representations (which they perhaps knew no longer represented anything, and that they were purely a game, but that this was precisely the greatest game - knowing also that it is dangerous to unmask images, since they dissimulate the fact that there is nothing behind them).”
This lack of trust in imagery, whether the imagery is in the form of icons (which some would argue imply a sensory experience) or more directly from the senses is the major theme we saw in The Matrix. It is expressed through Plato’s cave, and the parallels found in The Matrix. It is also found in some modern religions (I’m thinking of Protestantism, although my experience in this area is quite limited).
Continuing the theme of religions, we come to the Christian imagery that is present in The Matrix, although that topic probably deserves its own discussion.
What is reality really? I could be mad and in some institution and just thinking that the people around me are real. That being said who cares what is real as long as my reality is never changed, I would never even know there was another reality. Would I go down the rabbit hole? Probably not unless I thought I could get a better reality out of it.
ReplyDeleteCan we find the ultimate truth there is only one problem with finding the ultimate truth, ultimate truth is dependent on ones reality. I know my ultimate truth is a cookie, you know what a cookie sounds good right now I think I will go get it. Oooooo ya who knew ultimate truth could taste so good. O crap its all gone, my ultimate truth is all gone, good thing I got the 24 pack.
In the Matrix the machines using the humans for bioelectricity is not much different then are life now. Just think of the bioelectricity as us spending time as work and the matrix as the money we make from doing that work. The company's suck some of are life away little by little and give us something nice for them doing this to us.
P.S. I do not know if it is just me but in MY reality Neo is not hiding any illegal software inside a book how do you know its illegal software? I hide my none illegal software in my hollowed out book.
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ReplyDelete"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from the dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"
ReplyDeleteI think this says a lot about our world. As Andy put it, it does not matter what is real and not real so long as it does not effect our definition of reality. But what does this say about human nature? Is it human to remain ignorant to a world more real than our own? As I have said before, I believe it is within human nature to seek answers. In fact, all of human progress is based on the pursit of some kind of universal truth. Perhaps the message "The Matrix" is trying to convey is that most people choose not to go down the rabbit hole because it abanons all answers humans have worked to attain.
I agree with Daniel... I think my main idea that comes to mind when I see "the Matrix" is the fact that it does challenge anyone's known perception of life and the answers we chose to accept for daily phenomenon... What if we could change our perception and chose to explore something so new and unknown to us? I feel that "the Matrix" does try and challenge one's belief's, however, on the chance that one would choose to change, their own perception of the world and all explanations that have accrued would be decimated by the evidence that would be provided from this new reality
ReplyDeletehttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to The original Plato's Cave from the Republic. I know we've been talking about it in class but i think it's important to "discover" the logic of the allegory as Socrates intended (as a dialogue).