Explain some of the philosophical issues outlined in the film, The Matrix / We cannot be certain of anything. Discuss and evaluate.
Matrix essays [philosophy]
Explain some of the philosophical issues outlined in the film, The Matrix. (AO1) Through the film, The Matrix, the philosophical idea of epistemology is explored. One aspect of this philosophical issue that is tackles is whether we can trust our senses. In the film Morpheus says: ‘real is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain’. Everything we see is just light waves being reflected off objects into our eyes, everything we touch stimulates electrical impulses in our nervous system that travel to our brain and everything we hear is just sound waves being interpreted by mechanisms in our ears. Does this mean we can’t trust our senses at all? Neo experiences events in the film that present this issue, such as, when the bug-like thing enters his belly button; this is something extra ordinary that his senses picked up but he doubts as it cannot possibly be real. He initially passes them off as dreams due to his rationalist mind telling him the event wasn’t possible but he later realised that in fact they did actually occur. What is to say that is doesn’t happen in real life? Optical illusions are an example of when your senses trick you into believing that something is happening that actually isn’t, how do we know that everything we take for granted as being ‘normal’ is actually an illusion by our senses… The world could really be black and white, when we touch things we may not actually feel them at all and noise may not exist. The scene in the film where Neo is given the choice to take the red pill, where he will find out the truth and lose everything in his life, or the blue pill, where he will forget this every happened and go back to his ‘fake’ but comfortable life, clearly portrays an everyday philosophical issue- to be or not to be a philosopher. The fact that neo decides to take the red pill is no shock to the viewer as it is already clear that he is a philosophical character, this is portrayed by him
Explain some of the philosophical issues outlined in the film, The Matrix. (AO1) Through the film, The Matrix, the philosophical idea of epistemology is explored. One aspect of this philosophical issue that is tackles is whether we can trust our senses. In the film Morpheus says: ‘real is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain’. Everything we see is just light waves being reflected off objects into our eyes, everything we touch stimulates electrical impulses in our nervous system that travel to our brain and everything we hear is just sound waves being interpreted by mechanisms in our ears. Does this mean we can’t trust our senses at all? Neo experiences events in the film that present this issue, such as, when the bug-like thing enters his belly button; this is something extra ordinary that his senses picked up but he doubts as it cannot possibly be real. He initially passes them off as dreams due to his rationalist mind telling him the event wasn’t possible but he later realised that in fact they did actually occur. What is to say that is doesn’t happen in real life? Optical illusions are an example of when your senses trick you into believing that something is happening that actually isn’t, how do we know that everything we take for granted as being ‘normal’ is actually an illusion by our senses… The world could really be black and white, when we touch things we may not actually feel them at all and noise may not exist. The scene in the film where Neo is given the choice to take the red pill, where he will find out the truth and lose everything in his life, or the blue pill, where he will forget this every happened and go back to his ‘fake’ but comfortable life, clearly portrays an everyday philosophical issue- to be or not to be a philosopher. The fact that neo decides to take the red pill is no shock to the viewer as it is already clear that he is a philosophical character, this is portrayed by him