Plato, Descartes and The Matrix

The Matrix and the Search for Truth
In Descartes’ Meditations, he gives license to the idea that doubt can actually be a way of beginning one’s movement towards truth, just as doubt regarding the flickering of images on the cave wall by the inhabitant of Plato’s Cave begins his movement of turning around and seeing the outside sun and beginning the climb upward towards truth. Descartes seemingly encourages his philosopher-reader to do just this—to doubt in order to begin getting the mind working, questioning and interacting with what one can and cannot reasonably know: “Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars—namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the forth-putting of the hands—are merely illusions” (Descartes, 1641, l. 6). This same idea is put to Neo by Morpheus, who challenges Neo to stop living in the dream world, which he knows is not correct by the intuition in his soul. He senses, as Plato indicates in the Allegory of the Cave, that the truth is written on the soul and that this is why the soul responds to the flickering of light—the truth—when it sees it. For Neo, the light is mixed in with the dream, and he must struggle through the dream to the reality, and one way he does this is by way of Doubt—just as Descartes suggests.
For example, early on in the film, Neo awakens from sleep while sitting before his computer. On the screen is a message sent from Trinity. He does not know her, but Trinity the name is a highly religious reference to the Holy Trinity of Christianity—i.e., God. This scene can therefore be taken as Neo receiving a message from God to his soul—just as Plato describes the reality of truth being seen by the soul to be like in his Allegory. Trinity makes a prediction, “Knock knock,” to Neo (Wachowski, 1999)—and sure enough there is a knock at the door. The message from God to the soul corresponds with the reality that Neo is experiencing. However, as the messages continue—first from Trinity and then from Morpheus via cell phone complete with instructions on how to escape the Agents who are searching for him at work, Neo begins to doubt that these messages really come from an external force that sees and knows. His doubts become overpowering when he is on the ledge outside his office window. He is afraid of falling and thus decides to deal instead with the Agents who represent a lesser threat to him (so he thinks). When they show that they are in fact no lesser threat, Neo’s doubt serves as a gateway to greater understanding of the truth, just as Descartes says it will, with the affirmation that “if I desire to discover anything certain, I ought not the less carefully to refrain from assenting to those same opinions than to what might be shown to be manifestly false” (Descartes, 1641, l. 10). In these ways, the film compares very well with the readings from Plato and Descartes.
The film differs in the sense that Neo has assistance directly from Neo and his team, whereas in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave there is no third party intercessor; just like in Descartes’ Meditations, it is wholly the philosopher and his mind engaging in the debate of what is real and what isn’t. There are not third parties to help aid the individual. In The Matrix, Neo is unable to break out of his false world without the help of Morpheus and Trinity and the others—i.e., a special grace or intercession directly from a powerful force above him. The film thus implies that in order to know truth and reality there is the need for a special grace that is external to the soul.
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While Cypher prefers to live in the “cave” of artificiality because he can at least enjoy himself, Cypher would not make a good citizen in Plato’s Republic or be counted among the type of Philosopher-Kings meant to govern over the Republic. And while reality may at times be harsh and the ignorance of bliss may seem much sweeter, the fact is that there is also bliss in truth—such as in the truth that comes from basking in the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind—the meditation on God (or what is known as Heaven—the pinnacle of the Mountain that Plato’s truth-pursuer must aim to reach).
Socrates may not even be correct in asserting that most men would want to escape the cave—Cypher clearly does not, but as his name indicates he is a zero—a blank, empty inside, wholly willing to hand over his soul and the life of the mind for momentary sensations and pleasures that will ultimately come to an end—whereas Plato shows that the soul is eternal because its life is from God and its knowledge cannot be destroyed though the body may break down.
For this reason, the reality is better because it corresponds with the truth which is that the soul is what has been written on by God—it is what receives the message of truth and compels the mind and will to respond accordingly. If the soul does not want to receive this message, it shuts out God, and this is what is known as Hell (the refusal to be with God, the source of life, truth, knowledge, the transcendentals, etc.). Cypher chooses to shut out the truth and to go back to Hell—the life of the senses which is but a finite existence propped up by illusions. When the finite experience concludes, Cypher will still find that his soul which is made to be with the infinite God is now adrift, cut off from the truth, from access to the soul’s home—and that will not go well for Cypher or for those who choose the cave, because that is the way to Hell: Socrates advocates the way to Heaven—which is why Socrates asks Glaucon: “Do you not think that he would count himself happy?” (Plato, 518D8) with respect to the man who chooses truth. Glaucon agrees he would.

References
Descartes, R. (1641). “Meditation I ofthe Thingsof Which We May Doubt”
Excerpt from René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave”. Excerpt from Plato, The Republic, Book VII,
514A1–518D8.
Wachowski, A, & Wachowski, L. (1999). The Matrix. Directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures.