Heusser Philosophy 100 SG #6d

Philosophy and “The Matrix”

In “The Matrix”, Lawrence Fishbourne plays “Morpheus” (a Socratic character in the spirit of Plato) who asks us to “free” our minds. This is similar to another character he plays in “Boyz in the Hood” although in that case he is advocating a sort of political freedom rather than a metaphysical one.

The following is dialogue that reflects some of the philosophical and religious themes in “The Matrix”.

1. Metaphysics I: Dualism

M (Morpheus): “Do you believe my being faster or stronger has anything to do with my muscles in this place?” Do you think that is air that you are breathing right now?”

M: “Your mind makes it real.”

Neo: “If you are killed in the Matrix, do you die in the real world?”

• M: “The body cannot live without the mind”.

2. Metaphysics II: Free Will and Determinism

Trinity: “Get up!” (Told to herself while in the Matrix. What might this mean?)

M: “Some rules can be bent, others can be broken.” (Do you think Morpheus is claiming that physical laws do not apply to the mental?)

M: “Stop trying to hit me and hit me.” “You’re faster than this.”

M: “Don’t think you are. Know you are.” “Free your mind.”

M: “Adaptation, Improvisation. But your weakness is not your technique.”

• Do computers have this, according to Morpheus?

M: “I can only show you the door. But you have to walk through it.”

Neo: “Are you trying to say that I can dodge bullets?”

• M: “I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”

Oracle: Would you have knocked over the vase had I not told you?

Morpheus: “She [the Oracle] told you what you had to hear.” (What does this mean?)

3. More Religious Themes:

Friend: “You’re my own personal Jesus Christ” (Does this foreshadow anything?)

M: “As long as the Matrix [a deceiver] exists, we will never be free.”

Mouse: “What does that mean?”

• Cypher: “It doesn’t mean anything. Everybody falls the first time.”

4. Epistemology:

Neo: “Jesus Christ, that thing is real!”

• Did Neo actually feel pain when the bug was placed “inside” him by the computer?

M: You can choose the red pill or the blue pill. All I’m offering is the truth, nothing more. (Distinguishing knowledge from opinion)

Cypher: “Why didn’t I take the blue pill?”

Cypher: “I believe the Matrix can be just as real.”

Cypher: “I know this steak isn’t real. But one thing I’ve learned in 13 years. . . Ignorance is bliss. [Sound of beautiful harp playing]”

5. Free Will: Some scenes where Choice, Fate, and Freedom are discussed:

A. References to the Red Pill

Morpheus: Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo: No.

Morpheus: Why?

Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my own life. (Great Argument, Neo!)

Cypher: If he'd have told us the truth, we would have told him to shove that red pill right up his &$%!

Trinity: That's not true Cypher, he set us free.

Cypher: Free? You call this, free? All I do is what he tells me to do. If I had to choose between that, and The Matrix, well, I choose the Matrix.

Trinity: The Matrix isn't real!

Cypher: I disagree, Trinity. I think that the Matrix can be more real than this world.

B. References to the Oracle’s Predictions.

Neo: So is this the same Oracle that made the prophecy? And she knows, what, everything?

Morpheus: She would say, she knows enough.

Neo: And she's never wrong?

Morpheus: Try not to think of it in terms of right and wrong...

Morpheus: I told you, I can only show you the door. You're the one who has to walk through it.

Oracle: I'd ask you to sit down...but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase.

Neo: What vase? *crash*, Neo knocks it over.

Oracle: That vase.

Neo: I'm sorry. How did you know?

Oracle: What’s really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything...

Oracle: As soon as you step outside that door, you'll start feeling better. You'll remember you don't believe in any of this fate crap...you're in control of your own life...remember?

C. References to the Matrix Program controlling Humans.

Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Agent Smith: Hear that, Mr Anderson? It is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death...

Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon...that's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth...

Neo: What truth?

Spoon Boy: There is no spoon. Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

More Philosophical Matrix Quotes: http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/courses/intro/notes/matrix.html

The Matrix screenplay: http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/matrix/Matrix.script.html

Questions to Consider:

Narrative:

• Why did the computers unplug Neo and dump him into the cesspool?
• At what point did Neo leave the Matrix? Really?
• What are the cables attached to Neo for? In what 4 ways did Neo have input and output when he was in the Matrix? Recall the reference to Neo as a battery: “Listen to me coppertop…” (The body “generates enough BTU of body heat to generate more energy than a 120 volt battery”.)
• What does Morpheus mean by “Fate it seems has a sense of irony?”
• Why are there glitches in the Matrix? What explains them?

• When Neo shows up late to work, his boss in the Meta-Cortex building asks: “Do you have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson?” Do the squeaky window washers have any significance? What does the green tint symbolize?

Epistemology:

• How do we know that Neo got out of the Matrix?
• Did Neo ever see the actual sky or merely a training program?
• What knowledge can Neo (or Rachel in Blade Runner) have for certain according to Descartes?

Personal Identity:

• To what degree is the computer in the Matrix a “person”?
• How is it that Agent Smith disliked the “stench” but the others did not notice? What significance might this have? Note that Morpheus described the computers as having obtained “A.I.” but later suggests that it is limited by “rules” that Neo can break. Are these two propositions contradictory?

Ethics:

• Can a comparison be made between the way humans were being “grown” as an energy source for computers and the way the dairy and poultry industry “grow” or farm for humans?

Eudaimonia:

• Is truth or happiness more important?
• Why did humans kept “rejecting the [earlier] program” according to Agent Smith? Do you think this is true about human beings?
• Would you, if you were Morpheus, unplug everyone from their relatively happy lives? Why or why not?
• Would you have turned in your friends like Cypher? Why or why not?
• What if your agreement with Agent Smith included your impression that you actually helped your friends?
• What if the agreement included your impression that you saved the world?
• Most importantly, can Neo know that he did not have such an arrangement?)