Spinitist Elements in The Matrix: Reloaded
Created | Updated May 1, 2005
The Ethics the most significant work by the philosopher Benedict Spinoza is written in a geometric style that is intended to reinforce the necessary progression of definitions axioms and propositions to a conclusion that cannot be otherwise. Spinoza starts by redefining the Cartesian substance. For Spinoza substance is the sum totality of everything in the universe. This universe is infinite in all ways, including having infinite attributes of these only two of which are available to humans, mind and body. These two are identical to the Cartesian substances of thought and extension. The two attributes describe the same substance in two different ways. For each event there is a story to be told in terms of thought and one to be told in terms of extension. These stories run parallel and necessarily agree
According to Spinoza this universal substance is also identical to God. If God is infinite and the universe is infinite then God must be identical with the universe. God’s definition entails his existence. The notion of God requires that God exists. This is obvious when terms synonymous for God are substituted in this statement. The idea of the universe cannot exist without the universe itself existing.
The first section of The Ethics, Concerning God is mainly concerned with the metaphysics of the Spinitist universe. There is one universal infinite substance, this substance has infinite attributes, two of which, mind and body, are available to humans. There are various expressions of the substance that fall under one attribute the other. These modes of substance are the finite objects that populate the universe. Every event and object has a cause and these causes have causes. For everything that exists there is a chain of antecedent causes. Because everything is caused there are no free actions and no free will. The only freedom in Spinoza’s system is freedom from bondage. When a person cannot be described in themselves but only in combination with another object they are in bondage. Through understanding we free ourselves from bondage.
After examining the nature of God, the universe, and totality Spinoza talks about The Nature and Origin of the Mind in this section Spinoza is interested in what the mind is and what its connection to the body is. The essence of the mind is ideal. Here Spinoza echoes Descartes. The mind exists because it thinks it exists. The first thought of the mind is that of the body and nothing that happens to the body goes unnoticed by the mind. Minds are distinguished by the differences in their ideas, while bodies are distinguished by their particular ratio of motion and rest. This relation of motion and rest is determined in relation to other bodies. Thus objects of a certain attribute are only defined by other objects in the same attribute. But because every object and event has two stories that can be told about them the definitions always parallel.
From here Spinoza examines the source and makeup of the emotions. Because humans exist in the substance their emotions must obey the laws of causality. Knowing the causes will increase the understanding. According to Spinoza there are three basic emotions from which all others are made up, pleasure, pain, and desire. Pleasure is a feeling of an increase in the mind’s power. Pain is a feeling of decrease in the mind’s power. And desire is the thirst for power.
All other emotions are constructed of these three blocks as they relate to external objects. An object that causes us pain we hate, one that gives pleasure we love. In this the causes for our emotions are bound to an external object. Spinoza goes on to catalogue the many different types of emotions, their objects, and causes.
The result of emotions is that humans are in bondage. When they hate or love or admire or pity they are bound to a cause outside of themselves. Through this humans are ruled by external causes and are not free. Because the universe is determinate there can be no free choice of action. The only freedom comes in understanding. This understanding, for Spinoza, frees humans from the bondage of their emotions.
Understanding, being synonymous with virtue, is the heart of the Ethics. It is the quest for understanding which should govern ones actions. Understanding the causes of an emotion removes its bondage over us. Seen in the cool light of reason it is just another natural law akin to gravity or magnetism. Freedom from our passions will allow us to form a pattern of right behavior that can be firmly applied. With understanding into our own causes we are granted an inner peace knowing who we are and why we are that way. This peace and calm also translates over to external objects because they are the subjects of unchanged natural laws they cannot act against their nature. Thus no event could happen otherwise. This understanding also frees us. It frees us from worry into what might have been or what should have been because nothing else could have been. It is the achievement of these freedoms and understandings that “are as excellent as they are rare.”
It is in the second film of the Matrix trilogy, Matrix: Reloaded that Spinoza’s philosophy is echoed almost concept for concept. Trinity’s In opens with the interaction of thousands of bits of code that form ever larger bits of code that eventually pull back and coalesce into a wall clock. This is the same way that modes work. In the matrix everything is made up of codes. But the parallel body story, out in the real world is one of electrons and processors. Every event can be described both ways.
In We Are Still Here Morpheus gives a speech on the virtues of understanding. He is unafraid because he knows his causes and the causes of the machines and what has always happens. Despite the attacks they survive.
In What is Control Counselor O’Holland talks with Neo about control or bondage. The humans and machines depend on each other to survive. Humans power the machines and machines also keep Zion running. Even if the humans smash the machines they are bound by the consequences. The counselor do not know the how behind many things but he knows the why. His understanding of the causes of actions allows him to depend on machines without rancor or passion.
When Neo meets with the Oracle she confronts him with the fact of his own bondage. She tells him all the choices have already been made. All he has to do in understand why he made them. When programs act according to their nature they are normal, just like people. “We are all here to do what we are all here to do.” Neo’s mission is to understand what he is here to do. This purpose will not become clear to him until he meets with the architect.
During Swarm of Smiths Spinoza’s metaphysics is echoed in combat. In the litany of the roles of Purpose the Smiths are retelling the story of man’s bondage in causality. Their battle sequence is a revelation of how modes use their power to effect one another. Smith has the power to change a person’s antecedent causes to identical to his own. In this way they become identical to him. When Smith tries to convert Neo they both assert their power. Neo resists and they turn to brute force. Smith, in using his power shows his thirst for more and converts more and more people to his cause.
The conversation with the Merovingian in Taste of Merovingian is another very revealing Spinitist conversation. Because they do not understand their purpose they become objects of the Merovingian’s contempt. He proceeds to lecture the trio on the dominance of causality. There is no choice, causality is the only universal. The woman as an ignorant coppertop is ignorant of her causes and dominated by her passions. She is out of her own control. The only hope of humans and programs is to understand the why. The why is power, as understanding is virtue.
Even Morpheus seems to accept his fate. In The Reason We Are Here. Morpheus gives a pep talk to his people. “What happened happened and could not have happened any other way.” “Tonight is not an accident. There are no Accidents.” “I do not believe in chance.”
Neo is confronted with the truth of his own purpose and existence when he comes face to faces with the Architect. Spanning several scenes in this conversation Neo finally understands his own purpose. He is just another tool, a means of control. His only function is to reduce the systemic anomaly that results from choice. Neo is actually Neo 6.0. The presence of the one destabilizes the matrix requiring that it be reset. Neo is supposed to enter the source and then choose the new population of Zion. The Oracle is revealed as another form of control. If the subjects at some level chose to be in the matrix most of the people would accept it. Those that did not would form Zion. To keep Zion in control the machines destroy it regularly and allow the One to found it anew. If he does not the consent the matrix will collapse. Neo chooses to risk the death of all humans on the chance that Trinity can be saved. Neo, unlike the previous ones, cares more about one person then all others. Neo manages to escape and revive Trinity. But Zion is in grave danger and the film is to be continued.
According to Spinoza this universal substance is also identical to God. If God is infinite and the universe is infinite then God must be identical with the universe. God’s definition entails his existence. The notion of God requires that God exists. This is obvious when terms synonymous for God are substituted in this statement. The idea of the universe cannot exist without the universe itself existing.
The first section of The Ethics, Concerning God is mainly concerned with the metaphysics of the Spinitist universe. There is one universal infinite substance, this substance has infinite attributes, two of which, mind and body, are available to humans. There are various expressions of the substance that fall under one attribute the other. These modes of substance are the finite objects that populate the universe. Every event and object has a cause and these causes have causes. For everything that exists there is a chain of antecedent causes. Because everything is caused there are no free actions and no free will. The only freedom in Spinoza’s system is freedom from bondage. When a person cannot be described in themselves but only in combination with another object they are in bondage. Through understanding we free ourselves from bondage.
After examining the nature of God, the universe, and totality Spinoza talks about The Nature and Origin of the Mind in this section Spinoza is interested in what the mind is and what its connection to the body is. The essence of the mind is ideal. Here Spinoza echoes Descartes. The mind exists because it thinks it exists. The first thought of the mind is that of the body and nothing that happens to the body goes unnoticed by the mind. Minds are distinguished by the differences in their ideas, while bodies are distinguished by their particular ratio of motion and rest. This relation of motion and rest is determined in relation to other bodies. Thus objects of a certain attribute are only defined by other objects in the same attribute. But because every object and event has two stories that can be told about them the definitions always parallel.
From here Spinoza examines the source and makeup of the emotions. Because humans exist in the substance their emotions must obey the laws of causality. Knowing the causes will increase the understanding. According to Spinoza there are three basic emotions from which all others are made up, pleasure, pain, and desire. Pleasure is a feeling of an increase in the mind’s power. Pain is a feeling of decrease in the mind’s power. And desire is the thirst for power.
All other emotions are constructed of these three blocks as they relate to external objects. An object that causes us pain we hate, one that gives pleasure we love. In this the causes for our emotions are bound to an external object. Spinoza goes on to catalogue the many different types of emotions, their objects, and causes.
The result of emotions is that humans are in bondage. When they hate or love or admire or pity they are bound to a cause outside of themselves. Through this humans are ruled by external causes and are not free. Because the universe is determinate there can be no free choice of action. The only freedom comes in understanding. This understanding, for Spinoza, frees humans from the bondage of their emotions.
Understanding, being synonymous with virtue, is the heart of the Ethics. It is the quest for understanding which should govern ones actions. Understanding the causes of an emotion removes its bondage over us. Seen in the cool light of reason it is just another natural law akin to gravity or magnetism. Freedom from our passions will allow us to form a pattern of right behavior that can be firmly applied. With understanding into our own causes we are granted an inner peace knowing who we are and why we are that way. This peace and calm also translates over to external objects because they are the subjects of unchanged natural laws they cannot act against their nature. Thus no event could happen otherwise. This understanding also frees us. It frees us from worry into what might have been or what should have been because nothing else could have been. It is the achievement of these freedoms and understandings that “are as excellent as they are rare.”
It is in the second film of the Matrix trilogy, Matrix: Reloaded that Spinoza’s philosophy is echoed almost concept for concept. Trinity’s In opens with the interaction of thousands of bits of code that form ever larger bits of code that eventually pull back and coalesce into a wall clock. This is the same way that modes work. In the matrix everything is made up of codes. But the parallel body story, out in the real world is one of electrons and processors. Every event can be described both ways.
In We Are Still Here Morpheus gives a speech on the virtues of understanding. He is unafraid because he knows his causes and the causes of the machines and what has always happens. Despite the attacks they survive.
In What is Control Counselor O’Holland talks with Neo about control or bondage. The humans and machines depend on each other to survive. Humans power the machines and machines also keep Zion running. Even if the humans smash the machines they are bound by the consequences. The counselor do not know the how behind many things but he knows the why. His understanding of the causes of actions allows him to depend on machines without rancor or passion.
When Neo meets with the Oracle she confronts him with the fact of his own bondage. She tells him all the choices have already been made. All he has to do in understand why he made them. When programs act according to their nature they are normal, just like people. “We are all here to do what we are all here to do.” Neo’s mission is to understand what he is here to do. This purpose will not become clear to him until he meets with the architect.
During Swarm of Smiths Spinoza’s metaphysics is echoed in combat. In the litany of the roles of Purpose the Smiths are retelling the story of man’s bondage in causality. Their battle sequence is a revelation of how modes use their power to effect one another. Smith has the power to change a person’s antecedent causes to identical to his own. In this way they become identical to him. When Smith tries to convert Neo they both assert their power. Neo resists and they turn to brute force. Smith, in using his power shows his thirst for more and converts more and more people to his cause.
The conversation with the Merovingian in Taste of Merovingian is another very revealing Spinitist conversation. Because they do not understand their purpose they become objects of the Merovingian’s contempt. He proceeds to lecture the trio on the dominance of causality. There is no choice, causality is the only universal. The woman as an ignorant coppertop is ignorant of her causes and dominated by her passions. She is out of her own control. The only hope of humans and programs is to understand the why. The why is power, as understanding is virtue.
Even Morpheus seems to accept his fate. In The Reason We Are Here. Morpheus gives a pep talk to his people. “What happened happened and could not have happened any other way.” “Tonight is not an accident. There are no Accidents.” “I do not believe in chance.”
Neo is confronted with the truth of his own purpose and existence when he comes face to faces with the Architect. Spanning several scenes in this conversation Neo finally understands his own purpose. He is just another tool, a means of control. His only function is to reduce the systemic anomaly that results from choice. Neo is actually Neo 6.0. The presence of the one destabilizes the matrix requiring that it be reset. Neo is supposed to enter the source and then choose the new population of Zion. The Oracle is revealed as another form of control. If the subjects at some level chose to be in the matrix most of the people would accept it. Those that did not would form Zion. To keep Zion in control the machines destroy it regularly and allow the One to found it anew. If he does not the consent the matrix will collapse. Neo chooses to risk the death of all humans on the chance that Trinity can be saved. Neo, unlike the previous ones, cares more about one person then all others. Neo manages to escape and revive Trinity. But Zion is in grave danger and the film is to be continued.
