Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

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  Group-6 • Members • Pankaj Verma 120122025 • Shivraj 120107056 • Aniket Dhawad 120121011 • Ashish Suthar 120107001 • Abhinav Anand 120104001 • Nayanmoni Baishya 120108021 • Arvind 120123009 • Vivek Dandge 120103080 • Suraj Patil 120106050 • Nirmit Sakre 120121033
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  (429-347 BCE) •The “idealist” or “utopian” or “dreamer” • Born into a wealthy family in the second year of the Peloponnesian War • Name means “high forehead” • Student of Socrates • Left Athens when Socrates died but returned to open a school called the Academy in 385 BCE • Wrote 20 books, many in the dialectic style (a story which attempts to teach a specific concept) with Socrates as the main character
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  PLATO- At aglance Full name: Plato (Πλάτων) Born: 428–427 BC; Athens Died: 348–347 BC (age approx. 80); Athens Era: Ancient philosophy Region: Western Philosophy Notable ideas: Platonic realism Influenced by: Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Orphism
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  •Idealist, believes inorder and harmony, morality and self-denial •Immortality of the soul •Virtue as knowledge •Theory of Forms – the highest function of the human soul is to achieve the vision of the form of the good
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  Plato • Platois one of the world's best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C. in ancient Greece. Though influenced primarily by Socrates, to the extent that Socrates is usually the main character in many of Plato's writings, he was also influenced by Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans. • Plato was one of the greatest Philosopher who conceptualized democracy and wrote it in his book Republic.
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  Plato’s overall position • Metaphysics (Reality) • Epistemology (Knowledge) • Ethics (Good) THE THEORY OF FORMS
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  Plato’s Theory ofForms • The Theory of Forms maintains that two distinct levels of reality exist: the visible world of sights and sounds that we inhabit and the intelligible world of Forms that stands above the visible world and gives it being. • For example, Plato maintains that in addition to being able to identify a beautiful person or a beautiful painting, we also have a general conception of Beauty itself, and we are able to identify the beauty in a person or a painting only because we have this conception of Beauty in the abstract. 8
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  Plato’s Theory ofForms • In other words, the beautiful things we can see are beautiful only because they participate in the more general Form of Beauty. This Form of Beauty is itself invisible, eternal, and unchanging, unlike the things in the visible world that can grow old and lose their beauty. • The Theory of Forms envisions an entire world of such Forms, a world that exists outside of time and space, where Beauty, Justice, Courage, Temperance, and the like exist untarnished by the changes and imperfections of the visible world. 9
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  Plato’s Allegory ofthe Cave
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  • Prisoners chainedsince childhood. • Their limbs chained so they cannot move • Their heads chained so they cannot look any direction but forward
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  • They facea wall • On the wall are shadows • The prisoners’ attention is occupied by shadows cast on the wall
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  • The shadowsare cast from a roadway behind the prisoners. • On the roadway, shapes of various animals, plants, and things are carried.
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  • An enormousfire behind the roadway creates the light to cast the shadows
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  • When theshape carriers speak, their voice echoes on the wall. • The prisoners believe that the sounds are coming from the shadows
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  This is theonly reality that they know, even though they are seeing only shadows of images .
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  • One prisoneris released. • The prisoner is compelled to stand up and turn around.
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  • The brightnessof the fire-light blinds the prisoner and the shapes moving by do not appear as real as the shadows
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  • Similarly ifhe is dragged out of the cave and into the sunlight, his eyes are so blinded that he will not be able to see anything. • Over time his eyes will mature.
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  • The lastobject that he would be able to see is the sun. • Which, in time, he would learn to see as that object which provides the seasons and the courses of the year… Presides over all things in the visible region, and is in some way the cause of all these things that he has seen.....
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • “The Matrix”, a 1999 film by the Wachowski brothers, adapts a number of new and ancient philosophies about the truth behind reality, but the most central to the overarching framework of the film is adapted from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. While “The Matrix” mirrors Plato’s allegory almost exactly in structure, its storyline is far more complex and it is effectively adapted to be a modern sci-fi/ action movie. • In the Matrix, the main character, Neo, is trapped in a false reality created by a computer program. The program was created by machines that took over the planet. While in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a prisoner is able to comprehend the reality of the cave and the real one outside the cave.
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both revolve around the same metaphysical question, “what is real?” • Both works share more similarities than differences.
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • Just as the prisoners in the cave, Neo is chained to massive wall where machines harvest his body’s heat to power themselves. Neither the prisoners nor the people in the matrix realize that they are prisoners; they are completely unaware the reality they think they know is false. • “The Matrix” adapts the dark cave, where prisoners are literally chained, to become one of a virtual state, where people are not physically bound, but mentally, furthering their belief that they are free though they are not. This prevents them from doing anything about their imprisonment.
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  Similarity • Themain similarity is the acceptance of truth about themselves that Neo and the freed prisoner must face. They must accept this truth before they can acquire deeper knowledge about fundamental truths. To achieve this knowledge, both the freed prisoner and Neo need to experience the shocking demonstration that the senses are inadequate and that they can be systematically deceived.
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  Similarity • Anothersimilarity that both of these stories share is the fact that both worlds are controlled by a greater power. For example, Neo lives in a world which is controlled by the matrix while Plato’s prisoner lives in a world, or cave, controlled by the form holders. While explaining the matrix, Morpheus says to Neo, “…you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.”
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • A central theme in both Plato’s Republic (as well as most of his and his teacher Socrates’ philosophy) and “The Matrix” is the idea of human’s limitations in knowledge. • According to Andy Clark, Philosopher and Cognitive scientist, “The Matrix” forces its audience to “ask questions about what the actual limits and bounds of our own behavior are”. “The Matrix” manifests these limitations not only in the characters’ acquisition of knowledge, but also of their ability to break physical limitations that the captive humans are still subjected to.
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • Just as Neo is able to perform physically impossible feats once he learns to manipulate the matrix, the philosopher is able to learn infinite wisdom once he breaks free from the cave. • John Partridge, professor of Philosophy states that the basis of Socratic wisdom is recognizing one’s limits of understanding and then working toward breaking those limits.
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  Matrix Vs Allegoryof Cave • Neo applies this to his physical limitations, which the alternate reality has placed upon him. Knowing his limits and knowing that they are not real, allows him to accomplish anything in the matrix, such as stopping bullets in mid-air and flying (which he does in the very last seen of the movie).
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  Other Philosophical Influences-Descartes • Descartes poses the question of how he can know with certainty that the world he experiences is not an illusion being forced upon him by an evil demon. He reasons since he believes in what he sees and feels while dreaming, he cannot trust his senses to tell him that he is not still dreaming. He concludes that he cannot rely on his senses, and that for all he knows, he and the rest of the world might all be under the control of an evil demon.
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  SIMILARITY IN MOVIE • Descartes’ evil demon is vividly realized in the Matrix films as the artificial intelligence that forces a virtual reality on humans. Just as Descartes realized that the sensations in his dreams were vivid enough to convince him the dreams were real, the humans who are plugged into the Matrix have no idea that their sensations are false, created artificially instead of arising from actual experiences. • Like Descartes, Neo eventually knows to take nothing at face value, and to question the existence of even those things, such as chairs, that seem most real.
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  Socratic View •Ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the world and revered the wisdom of the Oracle who resided there, in the Temple of Apollo. This Oracle’s prophecies were always cryptic. • When Socrates visited the Oracle, he claimed that he knew nothing, and the Oracle replied that she was the wisest person on earth. Socrates disagreed, but he eventually discovered her ironic meaning. By claiming to know nothing, Socrates truly was the wisest because all others were under the false impression that they knew more than they actually knew.
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  Socratic View •The phrase “Know Thyself” was inscribed on the walls of the Oracle’s temple, suggesting that true wisdom lies in recognizing one’s own ignorance.
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  Socratic View •Neo, like Socrates, is willing to admit to his own ignorance, and the Oracle in the Matrix films maintains her confidence in him and his abilities despite his often visible confusion and doubt.
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  Central Themes •Concept of Reality: • 1. Dual nature: False reality; Ultimate reality • 2. Relative nature • Constant Pursuit of Reality: • 1. Men must search for the ultimate reality and break free from the shackles of false reality • 2. Enlightenment
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  Central Themes •Rationalism •-People should not only be contented on what they perceive to be true •-Plato states that we must search for truth by gaining more knowledge in order to unlock the chains of falsity.
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  Enlightenment In thefilm Inception, people can also be trapped in the dreamscapes. Mal and Cobb were trapped in the dream world for fifty plus years. Mal and Cobb were able to create their own world wherein they were the only ones who exist. They even grew old inside the dreamscape.
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  Cobb eventually realizesthat the world that Mal and Cobb created wasn’t the true reality. Cobb enlightens Mal that they have to get out of their dream world and go back into the true reality. And at first, Mal refuses to believe Cobb but eventually gave in to the idea that they have to kill themselves inside the dream in order to wake up into the real reality.
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  False realities Falsereality is another theme seen in Plato’s allegory of the cave and the film Inception. The projections of the shadows on the cave walls in Plato’s allegory of the cave can be compared to the dreams in the movies. They both create a false reality for the prisoners and the dreamers alike.
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  Mal, in thefilm inception became too engrossed with the false realities that she already refuses to believe that the true reality is not in the dreamscape. She became completely trapped in the dream world. REAL WORLD DREAM
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  Another example isthe team in the movie Inception created a false reality for their target Robert Fisher in order to plant an idea. Robert Fisher was taken into the dream world to be tricked and fooled into a false reality.
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  TOTEM –BIASED VIEWOF WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS FAKE REALITY.
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  Conclusion • Inmy opinion, the Matrix movie most effectively challenged me to reconsider my answer to the question “what is real?” • I find the movie to not be as straight forward as the Allegory of the Cave. • Reality is not as obvious in the Matrix which forces me to question my assumption about the concreteness of reality that surrounds me. I think this movie really makes people question their own reality and what it is to them.
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  Conclusion • TheAllegory of the Cave helped me reach a new understanding of external reality because it made me realize that you never know what reality is until you are faced with what is not reality. The prisoner lived his life thinking that reality was what he knew in the cave, but when he left the cave, the prisoner realized that true reality was what was outside the cave.
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  Conclusion • “TheMatrix” modernizes the original allegory and adds a more humanistic appeal. It also focuses more on human emotion and feelings. These two works have many similarities and revolve around the same metaphysical question.
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  Conclusion • Platothus espouses an approach that involves directing students’ minds toward discovering for themselves what is true, real and important. Additionally, Plato argues that only the well educated, the virtuous, the philosophers can be the rulers of Republic utopian city of “Kallipolis”. The Human race will have no respite from evils until those who are really and truly philosophers acquire political power or until, through some divine dispensation, those who rule and have political authorities in cities become philosophers.
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  Conclusion The prisonersportray the ignorant people/students who passively accept knowledge through a traditional lecturer-centered environment, where spoon feeding takes place. Students passively believe what they are taught by their teachers and accept the presented knowledge/truth as the real one, the real world.
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  Conclusion Learner-centered learningmoves away from traditional teaching environments and utilizes learning methods, through which students assume an active role and teachers become facilitators of the student learning process, rather than information providers. Such methods include amongst others, problem-based learning, simulation exercises, group projects, research work, etc.
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  References • Wikipedia • Google • http://www.sparknotes.com • http://vectors.umwblogs.or • http://www.wordpress.com