Skettios

I hope this isn't a harbinger of many problems to come. I'm going to unload a little of what I know about Plato, and see if anyone agrees, I might warn that I have a very different take on Plato than you'll see from most people, mainly because I believe that he writes in an esoteric style and doesn't always say what he means or mean what he says.

short answer

First, I do agree with Simple_Min in that Neo plays the role of the philosopher, freeing people from a cave. That agreement comes fairly easily.

long answer

I might possible differ with this thread when you ask the question, is what Neo freeing people from in the Matrix, the same as what Socrates frees the people of in the Republic?

My answer would be no. Neo frees people from their captors, while in Socrates case, the captors and the slaves are often one and the same. By this I mean that the "Cave", is Socrates representation of a certain kind of ignorance that men posess that is harmful to them. This ignorance is the idea that men think they know much, when they know very little indeed. The conversations of the prisoners would be similar to the animated converstations of children. Have you ever heard a child with an incorrect piece of knowledge, impress that knowledge on others, and convert them to his way of thought? This would be the role of the puppetteers, in Socrates day, the Sophists, who claimed to understand philosophy, but really only made matters more confusing for those seeking the truth. The role of a philosopher, is to refute these beliefs, and try to get the prisoners to break their own chains, once these chains are broken, they can at least see what they are talking about, the veil of their ignorance is broken. The next step is for them to find their way out into the light, or philosophy, no one can be lead there, they have to make it themselves.

I'll give an example, in the Gorgias, Socrates expresses the supermoralist idea to Callicles, that suffering justice is bad, but committing injustice is worse. He also states that punishment can restore a man's attachment to normal virtue. With this in mind, we should turn in our friends, so that they can be made healthy, and allow our enemies to continue committing injustice.

Obviously no one really believes this, it's part of a refutation that is intended to make the listener think about the role of justice in our lives, and that thinking is the first step to realizing we don't know all that we think we know. Once we have admitted that to ourselves, we are prepared to take the first step towards real philosophy.

So with that long explanation in mind, I would suggest that metaphorically, Neo is a philosopher, he has some knowledge, and understands that he doesn't know everything. I would also say that the imagery fits, but not necessary the allegory. If tables were turned, and Socrates were Neo, he would point out the flaws and glitches in the matrix, but would leave people to find their own way out. Kind of a sum' bitch when you think about it.

So with that lengthy post, I have to conclude that I agree with Simple_Min in that the Matrix does reach toward the Cave Allegory.

I also think that the post about the cave at the beginning is a little misleading. I don't think that Plato is trying to get us to buy his theory on the forms. I know that the Cave and the World of the Forms gets shoved together all the time, my response to that would be remember that the cave allegory comes at the end of The Republic. While many people have read the cave allegory, few have sat down and read the whole of the Republic. For those of you who haven't, I'll explain the two things I think it tries to accomplish. It wants to get you thinking about justice, specifically political justice. It's other goal is to explain the role of the philosopher in the political regime. Therefore, the cave allegory to me, isn't Plato pushing his forms argument, it's Socrates explaining his role as I have above.

I guess that's another parallel between Socrates and Neo. Ask yourselves if the political regime was friendly to Socrates or Neo, and the answer is a definite no. Socrates was murdered by the democrats, and Neo is hunted by the machines.

Makes me think of another philosopher and obvious Neo parallel, Jesus Christ.

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Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

Frederich Nietzsche