Is knowledge possible?
Juan Camilo Espejo-Serna
Universidad de la Sabana
Plan
- Overview of the film
- Four skeptical scenarios
Write in chat a one-line summary of the plot of THE MATRIX.
(A good one :P).
The film considers several questions with philosophical interest. One is about reality and knowledge of it. Another about why it matters.
They are not quite the same: the depends on the other.
The film makes use of a skeptical scenario in order to make a point about destiny.
Much like many in the history of philosophy, skepticism, in THE MATRIX, is not an end in itself but a means to further philosophical claims.
The question about the knowledge of reality is one dating back to the very origins of philosophy.
If there can be such a difference between appearance and reality, is knowledge of reality possible?
The history of philosophy is packed with answers to this question, raising issues, offering compromises and setting up philosophical theories that address the issue.
It is the question about appearance and reality. What is the relation between how things appear to be and how they really are?
THE MATRIX considers one form of this question and gives one answer
The question: You might not have knowledge of reality because "The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
Knowledge of reality might not be possible because there are obstables (the Matrix) that "blind us from the truth".
But can you lift the veil that blinds us from the truth?
What do you think is the film's answer?
We will keep on considering the first question in the second section of todays lecture. Let us turn to the second question.
Is freedom compatible with destiny?
The question about free will and autonomy is another central question in philosophy.
THE MATRIX considers one form of the question and gives one answer
If there is anything like destiny, then how can there be freedom?
The Oracle: You’re going to have to make a choice. In the one hand you’ll have Morpheus’ life and in the other hand you’ll have your own. One of you is going to die. Which one will be up to you. I’m sorry, kiddo, I really am. You have a good soul, and I hate giving good people bad news. Oh, don’t worry about it. 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? Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you’re done eating it, you’ll feel right as rain.
THE MATRIX seems to hold the view that destinty is the air thanks to which our freedom can fly.
We will come back to the issue of free will in other films. For the moment, let us look at the question about knowledge.
The film presents to us a skeptical scenario, a situation that is meant to give us reasons to doubt that knowledge is possible. Let me show some kinds of scenario and then I will ask you about which kind you think fits THE MATRIX better.
Doubting your knowledge because it comes from the senses and they sometimes deceive you
Answer: this does not put in doubt all knowledge. It assumes that it is possibe some form of knowledge, namely what is needed to contrast.
Doubting your knowledge because it comes from the senses and you could be dreaming it all
Have you dreamt that you're dreaming? What would be the difference from now?
Answer: this does not put in doubt all knowledge. It assumes that it is possibe some form of knowledge, namely what is needed to contrast.
There are stronger versions of skepticism that require a different kind of answer.
Doubting your knowledge because you could be tricked in every aspect by a superior being.
Have you erased your computer and reinstalled some programs but others not? Could there be a being that did that to you? You could have been created yesterday with all your memories as they are, no?
Doubting your knowledge because you might be critically, mentally ill.
If you cannot trust yourself, what can you trust?
What kind of skeptical scenario is presented by
THE MATRIX?
- Doubting the senses
- Dream doubt
- Superior being doubt
- Doubting the mind as a whole
