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MidtermsIntfiloMika Koga, Michael Siy, Erika Gue, Keanu Yu, Patty Lim, Timothy ChuaCENTRAL THEMES IN PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVEThe central themes in Plato’s Allegory of The Cave are reality and enlightenment. The false reality is illustrated in the cave where the slaves were deceived to believe the tangibility of the shadows. This is overlapped by the true reality, the outside world and the concept behind how these shadows were made. The separation of false and true reality leads to enlightenment. When the slave went to the outside world, he experienced true reality and was able to discern what was real. Due to this occurrence, the slave was able to attain wisdom or enlightenment. Further, one who is enlightened and knowledgeable of true reality must be obliged to educate the other slaves who were left behind in the cave. SIMILARITIES WITH INCEPTIONOne similar concept would be the idea of enlightenment and deception. The deception of false reality by the shadow of the puppets in the parable is similar to the movie’s concept of infiltrating dreams. In the movie, there exists a false reality of seeing projections in dreams and the true reality of being awake. In both stories, there also exists confusion as to which is reality. This is particularly evident in Mal and in the prisoners. Mal was unable to discern the difference between reality and dreams. Further, She had not recognized that she had already woken up from the dream. The prisoner, who was enlightened, after telling the others of what he saw, was only laughed at by the latter. The latter refused to believe his story, making the enlightened prisoner disarrayed on what to believe in. Another similar concept would be the inception of ideas in dreams as well as the injection of ideas of the puppeteers. Cobb and his team would make projections that aim to plant ideas in Fischer’s mind, similar to what the puppeteers try to project with the shadows that made the prisoners believe that the yare confined in that world.DIFFERENCES WITH INCEPTIONAccording to Plato, there are four "levels" of knowledge, which is related to a state of knowledge and understanding of anything in the real world. In the movie Inception, there is the concept of “levels” in dreaming in which one may “dream within a dream”, where the setting and situation of each level may be projected by a particular dreamer.Another difference from the allegory of the cave and Inception would be the situation of the false reality. In the cave, the slaves are forced to the false reality by their masters and have no control. But in the film, there is still a sense of control of the dreamer through the totems.FALSE REALITY VS. TRUE REALITYWhen unimaginable things happen, the mind is able to distinguish false reality aka dreams. While true reality aka when awake can be recognized when logical occurrences happen. These are generally common occurrences that are experienced in daily life. For example, impossible moments such as the world being bent to showcase both upper and lower ground, the appearance of unending staircases, and other unexplained phenomenons were staged to quickly discern false from true reality. Another example that illustrated false reality is the concept of death. In the film, death in the false reality would mean just waking up. Dying in true reality would mean exactly that, Death. With that being said, The mind can separate false reality from true reality when the mind notices an event that is impossible or out of the ordinary.KEY SCENES THAT DIVIDES FALSE REALITY FROM TRUE REALITYThe film used numerous key scenes to distinguish false reality from true reality. First, the existence of Mal in the subconscious of Cobb, where in the false reality Mal is still alive and is interacting with Dom. But in reality, she is already dead. There will be moments where Mal will convince Dom to stay with her in limbo but Dom will realize that Mal is just a projection of his guilt. Second, the key scene where Cobb and Mal were stuck in limbo for about 50 years and grew old together but as soon as they woke up to reality they were young. Same can also be said when Cobb rescued Saito in Limbo and they awoke in the plane. This illustrates that in the false reality there is no sense of time, years in dream are just minutes in true reality. Third key scene would be the meaning of the totems, where your totem will symbolize being in the dream world or the false reality. For Arthur it would be his loaded die, the chest piece for Ariadne, the spinning top for Mal and the wedding ring for Cobb. Fourth, when one steps into the subconscious of a individual they can alter and change the environment of the dream. There is consequence of being attacked in the dream if too many alterations are made. Fifth, the scene where the van pushed itself off the bridge causing the second level of the dream world to lose its state of gravity. The false reality in this scene would be the hotel losing gravity, but the truth is they are just in the van sleeping feeling the loss of gravity due to the fall. Sixth, the scene where Saito's dream was collapsing so in order to bring Cobb out of the dream he was pushed into the bathtub. The false reality was the dream to be overflowed with water, but the reality was Cobb was submerged in the tub. Seventh, The scene where Ariadne enters Cobb's subconscious and see floors of memories of Cobb's past experiences. The false reality of being in the past reliving those moments in somewhat physical way. The truth being that we can't go back to the past and relive it, we can only reminisce of these moments. Lastly, the scenes where Eames disguises himself as different people like Browning and the blonde woman. The false reality is being that person in the dream, but in reality you studied these individuals and made references, which made you appear that way in the dream. However, when you wake up, you will not be that person or individual. Thus, the mind is perceptive in differentiating false from true reality. EXISTENCE OF FREE WILLA dream is just a dream. It dwells within our mind or as some say in our sub-consciousness. Since a dream is taken from our mind, then it is merely a projection of our thoughts or what we desire and fear. Although we may want or desire something, it does not presume that we will act on our desires. Ultimately, the decision to act on something or not will reside on us. Our dreams may influence or affect our decisions; however, the choice will still rest upon us. A dream can be a trigger of something or it may not. A person has the capability to either accept and follow the dream or contradict it. The behavior of a person does not solely depend on a dream but rather it depends on several aspects such as the environment and relationships of the person in the real world. With that being said, free will will always exist. Free will is something that cannot be taken away. Being influenced is certainly different from having no choice. FREE WILL CANNOT EASILY BE MANIPULATEDFree will is the ability to act or decide for oneself contrary to fate and predetermination. Although we have free will, our decisions can be manipulated through our surroundings. Since our environment cannot be easily controlled, then free will cannot be easily manipulated. Immense efforts are necessary to control once surroundings. RESEMBLANCE OF COBB’S ACTIONS TO THE 4 NOBLE TRUTHSHuman existence is characterized by sufferingCobb clearly experienced suffering all throughout the film. This suffering is symbolized through the presence of the projections of his wife and his children whenever he was in the dream state.There is a cause for sufferingCobb suffered due to his guilt on performing inception on Mal. He did this to convince Mal to kill themselves because they were in limbo, and that it was not their reality. However, when Mal came back to reality, the idea still remained with her. This led her to commit suicide. Thus, filing Cobb with regret.There is a way out of suffering through the elimination of its causeNearing the end of the film, Cobb eliminated the cause of his suffering by facing and confronting Mal when he was in Limbo. He had finally realized that real Mal was never coming back. Further, he freed himself from her to return to his children.There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering Cobb’s way of ending his suffering is seen when he was reunited with his children. The fulfillment of the task given by Saito pardoned him from his charges. Thus, allowing him to return home to his children. ................
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