Throughout the film the Matrix it asks the question “what is real?

” The Matrix plays

with two types of Epistemology, the main one being Scepticism, the other empiricism,
rationalism debate. How does the Matrix contribute to our understanding of
epistemology?

Many philosophers believe in Scepticism, “what is real?” How do we know that the
world we live in isn’t a fake world, an illusion, created by some super computer, an
almighty god? The film displays this theory throughout the movie with a theme of
“artificial intelligence”. Machines took over the real world, destroyed and captured the
human race and creating a dream world where human’s minds are imprisoned and slaved
from birth to death. The main character “Neo” seems to be open minded to all, as he
responds to the messages and commands that were sent from Morpheus and his crew. I
believe Neo was a sceptic before he met Morpheus, “All your life you knew something
wasn’t right, you are searching for it Neo” Neo believed there had to be more to it, as do
many people and philosophers. Scepticism has no evidence to point to the fact that it is
true, but hasn’t been proven false, most could say believing is not enough as I would
agree, it is not enough to believe something just because someone tells you its true, in my
strong opinion the only real knowledge thought to be true is experienced knowledge.

Throughout the film Neo experiences things others do not, he knows that there is
something strange about the world, Neo can’t face that the world he grew up in was a lie,
but knew it was fate. Fate found him, for a reason, knowing that there is a world beyond
the present could be called a gift? Or just rationalism. Many are sceptical to the idea but
still are unsure. The famous rationalist Descartes presented the idea that all things happen
for a reason, we think thoughts in a way that they must mean something, “that little voice
in the back of your head”. This Idea of “knowing”, knowing that god is real, not because
it has been proven but to the fact that why else are we here, why would multiple people
think the same thoughts as to which Descartes does. These thoughts may not be accessed
straight from birth but they are printed their, god has printed his trademark in our minds.
Neo may not have known straight from birth that the world was imperfect or strange but
he knew it was there, it was imprinted in his mind the way Descartes describes. But how
can this knowledge be trustworthy, this knowledge is priori knowledge (before
experience) most would argue “mind over body” It is possible to just “know” as the
human brain uses only 5 percent of its potential, but this knowledge is not proven, these
days do things have to be proven to be true? Mistake after mistake, experience after
experience.

Experience is the way we are thought to learn, through our attempts and mistakes we
learn, our senses guide us through what is right and what is wrong. Neo trusts his senses
throughout the film, but only to find out that they have deceived him, Neo’s senses were
not there to notify him of The Matrix and what was wrong. He only learns this entering
the real world, where his real senses come into play. But are your senses said to be
trustworthy? I believe so. This essay can argue that Empiricism is the strongest
Epistemology debate, your senses are apart of you, in a way you could say they are
imprinted into your mind. Your senses are the only thing you’ve got, if you don’t trust
your senses what do you trust? Through experience you have learnt from right and
wrong.