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Matrix and Plato's Cave Analogy
By: AYNAM

NOSCE TE IPSUM

“Imagine mankind as dwelling in an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light across the whole width of the cave; in this they have been from childhood, with necks and legs fettered, so they have to stay where they are. They cannot move their heads round because of the fetters, and they can only look forward, but light comes to them from fire burning behind them higher up at a distance, between the fire and the prisoners is a road above their level, and along it imagine a low wall has been built, as puppet showman have screens in front of their people over which they work their puppets.” 1

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks he the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they."

Both the republic and the matrix are examples of man breaking these chains and move towards the truth of life, and help others to reach the same end. Plato gives an individual’s quest for truth through one's desire for knowledge, whereas the matrix gives us a messiah (the one) or a hero to set us free.
Released in the year 1999 the matrix boasts about an interesting story which has its plot borrowed heavily from different philosophical theories. One can see its obvious similarity with Plato’s analogy of the cave.
Thomas Anderson or Neo, all his life had a nagging doubt that the world around him, somehow, is not right. He comes in contact with Morpheus who confirms his doubts. It is not 1999 but 2000 years later and the machines (artificial intelligence) have taken over, using the humans no more than energy sources, distracting them by feeding a virtual reality computer simulation (Matrix) through a probe directly into our brain He is rescued from this by Morpheus, Unplugged and flushed from his vat, Neo, is taken up by Morpheus and his associates into a ship that travels deep beneath the surface of a now lifeless earth, ruled by computer intelligence keeping the humans submissive with the virtual reality world, the "Matrix," that is fed into their brains.
According to Plato, our world is nothing but shadows, imperfect manifestations of the forms. The prisoners in Plato’s cave are blind from true reality as are the people inside the matrix.

The matrix is a simulation that creates an imaginary world where people are prisoners from reality, much like Plato's Cave. The reflections or images that the prisoners see on the Wall are all the prisoners know of the world outside the cave. Projections of objects that are non real, but seem real because they have never seen the real world. People in the matrix only see what the machines show, making it difficult to wake up from a continuous dream show, trapped in an illusionary world unable to break free.

However if one of the prisoners in the cave were to break free, due to natural causes, turn around his neck and look towards the fire, and someone told him that whatever he knew of the world till now was an illusion and only half the reality, according to Socrates “Don’t you think he would be puzzled, and believe what he saw before was more true than what was shown to him now? ”2
Indeed, truth hurts, literally in this case because confined in darkness from the beginning, the eyes when turned around towards the fire, fails to adjust to the brightness and it pains, in the matrix Neo also face the same difficulty, his eyes and limbs are sore with pain when he asks Morpheus why is it so, his reply is “you’ve never used them before”.

(Humans are used as energy sources much like batteries, by the machines. A human body is preserved in a vat linked with multiple wires to the matrix.)
Exactly would be the psychological effect, the one from the cave would find it safer and less painful to believe what they saw before, the reflections in the cave. To make clear in the words of Socrates “ if he were compelled to look towards the real light, it would hurt his eyes, and he would escape by turning them away to the things which he was able to look at, and these he would believe to be clearer than what was being shown to him.” 3
In the matrix when Morpheus shows Neo ‘the desert of the real’ and explains the reality of the year 2199 (Approximately, They themselves are not clear of the year) he shouts “let me out let me out, I want out” he is unable to adjust and collapses in disbelief.

Next, in the republic if it was for someone to drag a prisoner from the cave
“Into the light of the sun”4 he would not be able to see clearly everything at once. He would start by looking at the shadows, the images and then the actual objects, and last of all the Sun itself (generative of all forms, One sees). And thus through reason and the knowledge of the real, that one has achieved philosophical enlightenment. When Neo overcomes his ignorance that that entire he sees is illusion, manipulative computer gimmick, he realizes, his potential and that he is the ONE.

“Let him be reminded of his first habitation, and what was wisdom there…”5
The freed prisoner pities the people back in the cave and would like to help them see the truth, actual reality. But is that possible? Socrates was not accepted with honors but was poisoned for speaking the truth nothing makes the rest of the people in the cave any different than Socrates’ culprits.
“Wouldn’t they all laugh at him…and it was not worth while so much as to try to go up? And would they not kill any one who tried to release them…”6
Morpheus also fears that ‘most of these people are not ready to be unplugged’
Everybody was not ready to accept the reality that easily, not in the cave, not in the matrix, the prisoner in the cave released of his chains naturally, felt that it was better to remain in a familiar surroundings than to go looking for truth in an unknown territory. Ignorance is bliss. Likewise in the matrix Cypher felt that Morpheus tricked him into the reality, he is fed up of being denied simple humanistic pleasure like decent food. He thus turns traitor against the people of the real world, In hope of returning back to the matrix. To the world he was better familiar with.

In Plato’s cave the enlightened one pity those trapped in the cave as the world beyond the darkness of the cave is suggested better.
Although in the matrix it is questionable whether the real world is better than the computer simulation. Because, then ‘The matrix’ might really seem to be a better choice.

Exactly for philosophy, anybody trying to bring people to accept ignorance as the condition of our nature, would be questioning our intelligence, our inability to comprehend the real on our own, which would not be acceptable to people at large, and thus Socrates would always be killed.
The matrix largely goes parallel to the analogy of the cave, enlightenment; freedom, etc are underlying ideas of both of them.
The main theme of the cave analogy is to bring to our notice our ignorance, and what we always see is not always real, Echoed by The matrix. Humans are rational beings and reason should always accompany sense perception, for complete knowledge.

Article Source: http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com

1 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic, book VII (514A-516B) 2 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic book VII (514A-516b) 3 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic book VII (514A-516B) 4 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic book VII (514A-516B) 5 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic book VII (516B-517B) 6 Great Dialogues of Plato, The republic book VII (516B-517B)

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