The Matrix as a tool for Philosophy teachers

Rating: Null/10 (10 October 2000)

I have used The Matrix in my high school courses of Philosophy. The task for the students is to watch The Matrix and after that, as groups of four, give a lesson to the other students about some philosophical theory/philosopher and its connections to the movie.
The philosophical themes are: Socrates (Morfeus as the person who leads to the search for the truth in The Matrix) Plato's idealism ja The State (Matrix is a modern version of the cave-metaphor) Utilitarism (the pleasant life in the matrix was not a good life, it is better to live - even with pain - in the real world. Only Cypher chose the pleasure) Immanuel Kant (epistemology and morals: even after leaving the Matrix Neo had to live in his own phenomenal world; Neo did his duty trying to save other people, the thinking about the consequences) Epistemology, Empirism ja Rationalism (How much could you rely on your senses in the Matrix; for example when sensing himself jumping from a rooftop, Neo used his rationality and knew it is not real)
Descartes (The method of systematic skepticism comes quite obvious:. What can we know for sure?)
After the course it seemed that the students (16 years old) were able to look at the Matrix in a new way, seeing many aspects they did not see before. Also the philosophical themes became useful and more easy to understand. With the help of a movie like this, philosophy can make its way out of the classroom, to become a part of real life, which I find important.
Juha Eerolainen Teacher of Philosophy and Ethics, Helsinki, Finland