Descartes Dualism Essay

Throughout history there has been an abundance of ancient philosophers, including Plato, who explored metaphysics and its relationship to the real world before Descartes’ began questioning the idea. Nevertheless, his views on dualism are very different from Plato’s. As we know, Plato thinks and feels as if the body is just a vessel for the soul, but Descarte on the other hand strongly believes and shows proof that both your soul and body are connected and intertwining. Stating one is not superior to the other, both work hand and hand, affecting each other. Descartes states that “I reflect therefore I am.” Descartes shows through his dualism that though the mind and body are separate , they are connected and reliant on one another. This is one

Cartesian Skepticism is the idea that we may only know something if we are certain of its truth, meaning that we know little to nothing about anything at all as many of us can not with confidence say we are 100% sure of anything. Just like in The Matrix where no character can ever have real knowledge by analyzing the stimulated version of the world around them they must always be skeptical of what they are experiencing and learning. This also relates to Descartes skepticism of ever getting real knowledge through our senses. This being said, such as The Matrix through skepticism, we can never be certain we are not trapped in our own virtual reality. Descarte does though bring to light the idea that even though we may never become aware we are in a “Matrix” we can be certain there is a “you” even if in a virtual reality, you exist. The Matrix makes use of Cartesian type skepticism as it tries to get the people watching into the virtual world. This is illustrated in Neo’s choice between the red pill and blue pill in The Matrix, which can be compared to Descartes’s theory of the acid test. As we can see by Descartes beliefs that even though our bodies and minds are completely separate they need each other. Descartes Meditations focus on his own thoughts and life experiences of reality, not the experience of humanity as a whole, in the meditations, he adopts a belief and idea of 100% skepticism.