In this paper, I will first explain one of Descartes most debatable hypothesis found within his first Meditation, this hypothesis that refers to an evil demon brings to the table a series of existential questions that even today we are still trying to figure out the answer to. Then, I will explore how indubitable the “I think therefore I exist” and “the contents of one’s mind” are in relationship to the movie The Matrix by providing key examples of the movies that help to enlighten Descartes philosophical thoughts. Also, I will suppose Descartes himself is watching the movie, and he comments the following, “how the world in the movie is not real but just a part of the matrix and how one’s existence is challenged.” If Descartes were to comment this way, I would have to agree with his observations, in other words, I believe that Descartes’ initial conclusion of his Meditations I-II are the case in the described situation of the movie.
In his first Meditation, Descartes explores our knowledge of the external world by dividing our beliefs into two categories: Foundational beliefs (basic beliefs that are solid) and Super-structural beliefs (non-basic beliefs which count as knowledge). He wanted to show how many if not all of the beliefs we have about the world are cases of genuine knowledge. Nevertheless, to understand the basis of “believing,” Descartes explored the ideas of skepticism and how certain we are of things happening in our surroundings. He developed three arguments: the argument from Illusion, the dream argument, and the evil demon argument (in this paper I will talk about the latter). The evil demon hypothesis claims that all we know for sure is that we exist (I think therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum). All else can conceivably be the result of input from an evil demon being who just wants to mess with us. We may not have a body or access to our senses. However, the one thing that cannot be an illusion or false input is the fact that we have thought, which gives us the capacity for us to think and rationalize about our existence in the world. Descartes, consider this hypothesis because he has reason to doubt the totality of what his senses tell him as well as the visual knowledge (shape, color, taste, form) that it seems he has. Even though Descartes objectifies the existence of an evil demon as a possible cause for our capacity to believe, he refutes this hypothesis by negating the existence of such a being. He puts forth the assumption of a God, who is all merciful and would not allow such a being to play such tricks. Thus, we can be certain that we are as we perceive ourselves, assuming, of course, we believe in a greater power, God. After proposing the evil demon argument in his first Meditation, Descartes concludes of two things being indubitable, the proposition of “I think therefore I am,” and “the contents of one’s mind.” These two things are considered to not only be certain to us and others but are items that can avoid the possibility of any falsity to slip by.
In 1999 the movie The Matrix debuted to the public and took the philosophical world by storm because it gives us an astounding visual glimpse to the basis of skepticism. The concept of the movie, although simple in paper but complex in thought, touches upon the epistemological and metaphysical questions discussed by Descartes in his Meditations I-II. To understand the connection The Matrix has with the philosophical thoughts Descartes brings via the ideas of skepticism, I will explain the basic concepts of how the Matrix works in the movie. In the movie, the Matrix represents the average persons’ view of reality, i.e. day-to-day life events, the 9 to 5 daily schedule, whatever you like to call it. Essentially, it’s a set of “rules,” in the movie, set down by the computers. It is noteworthy, however, that the matrix is not real but within the context of the movie, it can be considered as a massive multiplayer simulation where different subject (people) from different backgrounds interact with each other. Even though the matrix is this emulation that projects to you the daily grind, you can’t know if you are connected to the matrix, right now for instance. You cannot know whether anything outside of your mind is true. That the only thing that you can be 100% sure of is that your mind exists and that it’s thinking the thoughts that you are thinking. Everything else can be, or rather is false.
Descartes’ evil demon being is thoroughly exploited in The Matrix movie as the A.I. (artificial intelligence) that implants a virtual reality on human’s brains, “A.I. – you mean Artificial Intelligence?” (Neo). Just as Descartes realized in his Meditations that the series of sensations in his dreams were vivid enough to end up convincing him the dreams were “real,” the humans who are plugged into the Matrix are not able to tell that their sensations are indeed false, and are created artificially instead of them arising naturally from actual experiences. It is not until Neo is unplugged from the Matrix, he, too, has no idea that his life is, in fact, a virtual reality. Just like Descartes, Neo eventually learns that he can’t accept things at first without analyzing them, and to question the existence of even those things, such as chairs, that seem mostly real. The chair example, for instance, is present in the movie when Morpheus is making Neo, who his at the Construct, aware of what reality really is and how do you define it, “If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain” (Morpheus). It is noteworthy that Descartes stated, “perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep.” This statement matches what Neo felt in the Matrix; he felt as that he could not tell the difference between what is a dream and what is a reality.
Let us suppose that Descartes is watching the movie The Matrix and he states the following, “Even if it turns out that the world Neo has been living is not real, but just a part of a Matrix, Neo’s existence is not challenged. This is because of his concurrent thoughts and his phenomenological perceptions,” I would agree with his statement about the movie because of a series of factors that touches upon the contents of one’s consciousness that extend the domain of certainty. In the movie, the proposition of Cogito ergo sum can also be associated with Neo, he apparently thinks, and therefore is. Nevertheless, it’s not entirely clear just what “he” is, or whether or not the world around him is there (however clearly and distinctly he seems to sense it or perceive it). As Descartes pointed out in his first Meditation, we seem to believe what we perceive with our sense. However, we can end up recollecting incorrect data in our brain, in other words, our senses sometimes trick us to believe that a particular status of something is real. The inhabitants of the Matrix, for instance, walk about like the automata (seemingly men in coats and hats) Descartes imagined lurking outside his window. They are literally “cloaked” in data and inserted into each other’s dreams. However, from a Cartesian point of view, our intellect–and not our eyes–judges seamlessly that there are people, and not automata, under those coats and hats.
After analyzing the epistemological and metaphysical structure of the movie The Matrix, it can be concluded that movie itself is a re-telling of Descartes’ dream of the evil demon and how it comes to trick him into believing that everything he senses be it touch, smell, sight, taste or smell, and whatever he’s capable of thinking is false. However, the simple fact that he knows he is thinking makes him believe that he exists without taking into consideration the body and its neurological impulses directed by the brain.