Would you take the red pill or the blue pill? Is the reality you perceive even true? What is a human being? These questions, which at their heart have to do with either accepting or rejecting the illusions that constitute some or all of life as humans know it, became part of culture almost immediately after Morpheus asked them to Neo. The film The Matrix largely interprets the philosophy of Plato. The characters in The Matrix are blind from true reality, as well as the people of Athens. Morpheus (like Socrates with the people of Athens) made it his mission to enlighten Neo by showing him that everything he thought he knew was a lie. There are many similarities when considering the theory of the human person between The Matrix and Plato’s Five Dialogues. The theory of the human person illustrated in The Matrix is Platonic and not Thomistic.
Plato was a dualist in that he believed there was an immaterial world (mind/soul) and a material world (body). He believed that the body was merely a temporary vessel, and that it hindered what was essential— knowledge. Plato saw the soul/mind as the essence of the human person and that the body was inessential because it was immaterial, therefore it was subject to decay and would not live on after death as the soul/mind would. Needless to say, Plato believed people should care about their souls/minds rather than their bodies. He believed that while the mind is associated with the body, they are two distinct things. The body is only concerned with the material world and acts as a vessel for humans to gain experience in the world they live in. The body wants to experience composite, sensible, and material things. Plato believed if the soul
“is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, as it had no willing association with the body in life, but avoided it and gathered itself together by itself and always practiced this, which is not other than practicing philosophy in the right way, in fact, training to die easily” (Phaedo, 80e).
Because it is mortal, the body will be lost after death. The soul/mind however, is directed towards the immaterial realm of ideas. It is with the mind that people are able to understand the eternal world of the forms (i.e. beauty, justice, and knowledge). The soul is the driving force of the body, and it is what gives humans their identity. The soul is immaterial and immortal; therefore, it is able to exist without the body after death. Plato’s dualistic philosophy combined key ideas from both Materialism and Idealism. His theory was that we had both a physical body, and a soul/mind that was a thinking being, complete in itself, and capable of living without the body. Plato’s dualism says there is more to life than just what people are always aware of— there is more to life than meets the eye. However, Plato does not deny the existence of the physical world as an idealist might. He simply believes that the physical world is not of importance, and we should instead be seeking to understand the immaterial world.
In contrast, Thomas Aquinas’ theory of the human person opposes Plato’s. Aquinas believed in the essential union of the mind and body. Therefore, the mind could not survive without the body. Aquinas believed dualism could not explain why the soul, if it was essentially different from and superior to the body, should be united to the body. It benefits the soul to be united to the body. The body is necessary for the soul because the body allows the soul to exercise all vital capacities; since vital functions are performed by the body and soul together. Aquinas believed the soul required a body because acts of the senses (for example, sight) require bodily organs (seeing requires the eyes). In comparison, the acts of thinking and intellection, which are unique to humans, require the human mind. Thus, having a human mind requires having a body; if humans are to exercise their proper functions, they must have a body. Aquinas states that “because it is one and the same, man who is conscious both that he understands and that he senses. But one cannot sense without a body, and therefore the body must be some part of man” (Summa Theologiae Ia 76, 1). Aquinas is saying that if man were just a mind with no relation to the body, he would not experience things that happen to the body. People clearly experiences things that happen to their bodies when they use their senses. Therefore, the human being is an essential union of the body and the soul.
Throughout The Matrix, there are many scenes that greatly coincide with the philosophy of Plato. The first and most obvious similarity would be between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the scene in The Matrix in which Neo first “awakens” from the matrix and sees the real world for the first time. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes people who were born inside a cave and who had spent their entire lives there, chained into a fixed position, only able to see what was in front of them. There are sorts of “puppet masters” manipulating shadows on a wall in front of them; they play out stories with the shadows and the prisoners begin to believe that what they perceive is real life. A prisoner is then freed from his chains and looks at the fire and statues that were causing the shadows. He gets startled and confused and is hurt from looking at the light, but he then realizes the things he is seeing are more real than the shadows. He then accepts the statues and the fire as real things. He goes on to fully understand a greater reality — that there is a world beyond his cave. In comparison, the matrix itself can be related to the cave. The matrix is essentially like the shadows being shown to the prisoners. The prisoners perceive the shadows are real because that is all they are seeing; just like the people in The Matrix think the matrix is reality because they have never seen anything different. Once Neo awakens from his sleep in his pod, he realizes that what he has seen in the matrix was a false reality. What he sees before him is the truly real world. He is in shock at first, but goes on to understand that the matrix was just shadows he was being forced to watch. Plato also insisted that people who have freed themselves of false reality have a duty to teach others what they know, and this belief is also true in The Matrix. Neo takes it on himself to free humanity from ignorance and belief in a false reality. Plato’s allegory reiterates how he views the human person in that he shows how vulnerable the human mind is. If a person lets their mind be corrupted by shadows (sensible, material things), they will believe that the shadows are the only real things in the world. Philosophy allows Plato to see through the shadows and perceive what is truly real (immaterial, immortal things). Just like if a person escapes the matrix, he will be enlightened and see the world for what it truly is.
In addition, Plato writes of Socrates using a metaphor which includes himself as a gadfly constantly bothering the city of Athens (Apology, 30d). Socrates here can be compared to the character Morpheus. Socrates’ main goal in Athens is to stir the city up and make them constantly question what they know. Similarly, the character of Morpheus takes on the task of making Neo constantly question his own reality. This metaphor can also be compared to a scene in The Matrix where one of the agents is speaking to Morpheus and says to him, “Human beings are a disease and we are a cure.” Plato sees the material and physical aspects of humanity to be a waste of time because they are subject to decay and will not survive with the soul after death. Plato wants to show the people of Athens that philosophy is the cure for human weaknesses. Similarly, the agents see humanity as something they need to control so it will not get out of hand.
In The Matrix, the human body is resting in a goop filled sack, while the mind is controlling every aspect of a person’s reality. This can be compared to how Plato views the mind and body as two separate entities. Also, if a person goes into the matrix and they are killed, they also die in real life. This shows that if you lose your mind, your body cannot live without it; therefore, the body is essentially useless, and the mind is superior to it. If the view of the human person in The Matrix was based on a Thomistic philosophy, a person would have to physically be in the matrix because the mind would not be able to survive without the body. As shown in the film, only the characters’ minds are transferred into the matrix. This proves that the film shows a theory of humans that is Platonic and not Thomistic.
In conclusion, The Matrix clearly shows a view of the human person that is Platonic and not Thomistic. Through obvious references to Plato’s allegories and beliefs about humanity, it is no doubt that the directors of The Matrix on philosophical questions posed by Plato. The theory of the human person illustrated in The Matrix is Platonic and not Thomistic.