Descartes, Zhuangzi, and The Matrix

Posted: Wed, Mar 25, 2026

Zhuangzi pointing to a butterfly: Is this me? Descartes pointing to a butterfly: Is this a dream?

Today

  • Debrief The Matrix: Red pill or the blue pill? (In what ways, if any, does it matter?)
  • Skeptical scenarios: Appearance (how things seem to be) comes apart from reality (how things in fact are).
    • Methodology: Constructive use of doubt to bulldoze old systems of belief and establish a secure foundation for knowledge (incl. his physics & mathematics)
    • The Matrix
    • The butterfly/Cartesian dream
    • The Cartesian evil demon (his own answer: Cogito, ergo sum; I think, therefore I am.)

“I will suppose . . . some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgement. I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing that I have all these things.” (AT 23)