Hegelian Elements in The Matrix: Revolutions
Created | Updated May 1, 2005
But the life of Spirit is not the life that shrinks from death and keeps itself untouched by devastation, but rather the life that endures it and maintains itself as it. It wins its truth only when, in utter dismemberment, it finds itself.
-Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit §32
In the third film of the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix: Revolutions, Neo engages Agent Smith in an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire Matrix and the future of Zion. This battle can be interpreted as a Hegelian contest between the thesis and antithesis, Neo and Smith respectively. These contests between thesis and antithesis are definitively Hegelian. In the Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel uses this method to trace the development of thought from sense certainty through to reason.
In the first stage the thesis develops. In coming about the thesis generates its own antithesis. In the Phenomenology the starting thesis of sense-certainty generates its own antithesis, perception. Theses fail when they prove to be inadequate to the world around them. This inadequacy gives rise to their determinate negative. For sense certainty the object is essential when the object is shown to be universal the concept fails. This failure creates its determinate negation of perception, where the subject is the essential with the object as a conglomeration of universal properties. But the failure of each of these leads to the positing of the other. Hegel’s solution is to posit this movement as the new thesis, Force and the Understanding.
This movement, thesis to antithesis and then positing the contradiction is used by Hegel at various scales throughout his work, from simple axioms inside one chapter, to the interrelation to whole sections of the work. For Hegel this process is the way of despair. Thought fights to the death against the failure of its concept but the downfall of the thesis in inevitable.
This battle between thesis and antithesis actually happens in the sections It Ends Tonight, Urban Splash, and Neo’s Choice. Neo as the thesis and Smith as the antithesis lock in epic battle. Smith seems to gain the upper hand several times in the battle and yet Neo persists, doggedly refusing to give in, to Smiths consternation.
The solution is found not in victory for either side but in Neo excepting his fate allowing Smith to consume him. This seems to be an un-Hegelian moment, following more of the Marxist thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic. I consider this not to be an error on the part of the screenwriters but one of the shortcomings of the movie as a philosophic medium. A movie is hampered by its necessary use of images. Synthesis and positing the contradiction could look very similar. But a true synthesis would create some kind of Neo-Smith hybrid not the annihilation and restoration that occurs. The only flaw left which cannot be accounted for is the Machine Lord’s defibrillator like shocks which initiate after Neo is subsumed and destroys the Smiths. In a true Hegelian movement the very positing of the contradiction would move thought to the next stage, or in terms of the film the end of the war should, on its own, restore the Matrix all be it in a mediated way.
This mediation is seen in fact in the last scene of the film, Freedom and Sunlight. There for the first time the color blue is seen in the Matrix and the green tint that pervaded all moments prior to this is gone.
The are other very Hegelian moments in the film, in The End is Coming The Oracle asks Neo if he recognizes her. Neo does recognize her but only parts. “Some bits you lose some bits you keep,” is her response. Aside from the computer allusion, a bit is the name for the 1’s and 0’s that for all computer codes, the return to a previous form in a mediated fashion happens often in the Phenomenology. This return to something earlier is the goal of the work from sense certainty on. The end of the movement of thought, Reason, is a reproduction of Sense Certainty in a mediated form. Objects are available again to the senses but with limitations and understanding gained along the way.
This quest for something earlier is the story of Zion’s struggle. The humans seek to restore the civilization that existed at the highest point if human achievement late 20th early 21st century America. They have already rejected this civilization in its immediate form, the Matrix, due to its failure to satisfy completely their concept of reality. Neo demonstrates this dissatisfaction early in the first film in his search for Morpheus and the truth.
Later in the Oracle’s conversation with Neo she remarks that when Neo touched the Sentinels through the source he should have died, but part of him was not ready for that either. This brings to mind the passage at the beginning of this paper. Neo, at this point, has not realized what must be done; he is still shrinking from death and devastation. He does not fully realize that his own death is necessary and he does not understand until he battles Agent Smith and succumbs to the inevitable.
The Oracle does realize that death in necessary however. She tells Neo that she wants the same thing he wants, “and I’m willing to go as far as you are to get it.” The Oracle is willing to die to bring the end of the war and she does the same thing Neo does when facing Smith, though she knows from the outset what must happen and allows Smith to subsume her without a struggle.
Neo’s existence is a result of the failures of the first two types of the Matrix, the Heaven Matrix and Hell Matrix. I infer the existence of these two Matrices from the Architect’s statements at the end of Matrix: Reloaded. There the Architect describes his first attempt at enslaving humanity in a place where there was no pain, or disease or suffering of any kind, a perfect world. But people did not except this reality. Its concept was inadequate to the reality of the human mind. Minds rejected it. The second attempt, where the Architect tried to engineer negativity into the Matrix also failed.
Once again we see thesis and antithesis presented and the positing of the contradiction. This contradiction was choice. If people at some level chose to be in the Matrix then their minds will not reject it. Introducing choice into the Matrix created the systemic anomaly that is the cause of Neo. So Neo himself is the result of the Hegelian dialectic.
The notion of History also plays a role in this film. The back story given by the Architect at the end of the second film reveals that Neo is the sixth “one.” For Hegel History is teleological. That is, it has a definite ends towards which it moves. This telos is Freedom and Freedom for Hegel bears a strong resemblance to Spinoza’s Freedom. Absolute Spirit is totally free because it’s existence is self contained. Just as when in Spinoza, a person is in bondage when they cannot be described with out referring to an external object. Despite any changes in thesis this goal remains. During every Hegelian movement the end is Freedom.
The goal then for the History of the Matrix is Freedom for every thinking thing, including the Machines. To be free the minds in the Matrix must chose to be there. That choice would come from in them and thus they would not be in bondage. For the machines to be free they must release all those minds that they hold prisoner, because the machines have become dependent on the Minds for power they are in bondage.
History is the work of individuals. It is the sum total of all actions taken, though some contribute to the development of Spirit in the world and some do not. But all events are the actions of individuals. But individuals act based on their passions, will, and desires. It is the beauty of Spirit that this can be turned towards Spirit’s end.
History works on two levels. There are the myriad individuals each working for their own personal gain, according to their desires and wills, and then there is the manner in which these actions contribute to history. Hegel compares these to the warp and the woof of the tapestry of History. Two necessary parts but also separate.
One of the major factors in driving along the development of Spirit is the World Historical Figure. These WHF’s are men who understand that the telos of Spirit transcends human law and morality and thus offer themselves up to Spirit, fashioning their passions in accordance with the universal. In our world Caesar, Alexander the Great and Napoleon were World Historical Figures. In the Matrix Neo is. This surrender to Spirit is not rational. It is more on the level of a belief and so the surrender is an act that appears to result from an internal process.
We see Neo surrender to the universal in Inevitable and Over. Here Neo glimpses what must be done and surrenders to Smith, who does not come to understand until he sees himself start to annihilate in front of him. This as a result of Neo’s surrender Smith too gives in. The contradiction, Freedom, is posited and the Matrix is born anew. Though it remains to be seen if this form of Freedom is fully actualized or is just a greater degree of Freedom then existed before but is still not total. If the Freedom is incomplete then a new antithesis will arise, the peace will fail and the struggle will begin again.
-Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit §32
In the third film of the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix: Revolutions, Neo engages Agent Smith in an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire Matrix and the future of Zion. This battle can be interpreted as a Hegelian contest between the thesis and antithesis, Neo and Smith respectively. These contests between thesis and antithesis are definitively Hegelian. In the Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel uses this method to trace the development of thought from sense certainty through to reason.
In the first stage the thesis develops. In coming about the thesis generates its own antithesis. In the Phenomenology the starting thesis of sense-certainty generates its own antithesis, perception. Theses fail when they prove to be inadequate to the world around them. This inadequacy gives rise to their determinate negative. For sense certainty the object is essential when the object is shown to be universal the concept fails. This failure creates its determinate negation of perception, where the subject is the essential with the object as a conglomeration of universal properties. But the failure of each of these leads to the positing of the other. Hegel’s solution is to posit this movement as the new thesis, Force and the Understanding.
This movement, thesis to antithesis and then positing the contradiction is used by Hegel at various scales throughout his work, from simple axioms inside one chapter, to the interrelation to whole sections of the work. For Hegel this process is the way of despair. Thought fights to the death against the failure of its concept but the downfall of the thesis in inevitable.
This battle between thesis and antithesis actually happens in the sections It Ends Tonight, Urban Splash, and Neo’s Choice. Neo as the thesis and Smith as the antithesis lock in epic battle. Smith seems to gain the upper hand several times in the battle and yet Neo persists, doggedly refusing to give in, to Smiths consternation.
The solution is found not in victory for either side but in Neo excepting his fate allowing Smith to consume him. This seems to be an un-Hegelian moment, following more of the Marxist thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic. I consider this not to be an error on the part of the screenwriters but one of the shortcomings of the movie as a philosophic medium. A movie is hampered by its necessary use of images. Synthesis and positing the contradiction could look very similar. But a true synthesis would create some kind of Neo-Smith hybrid not the annihilation and restoration that occurs. The only flaw left which cannot be accounted for is the Machine Lord’s defibrillator like shocks which initiate after Neo is subsumed and destroys the Smiths. In a true Hegelian movement the very positing of the contradiction would move thought to the next stage, or in terms of the film the end of the war should, on its own, restore the Matrix all be it in a mediated way.
This mediation is seen in fact in the last scene of the film, Freedom and Sunlight. There for the first time the color blue is seen in the Matrix and the green tint that pervaded all moments prior to this is gone.
The are other very Hegelian moments in the film, in The End is Coming The Oracle asks Neo if he recognizes her. Neo does recognize her but only parts. “Some bits you lose some bits you keep,” is her response. Aside from the computer allusion, a bit is the name for the 1’s and 0’s that for all computer codes, the return to a previous form in a mediated fashion happens often in the Phenomenology. This return to something earlier is the goal of the work from sense certainty on. The end of the movement of thought, Reason, is a reproduction of Sense Certainty in a mediated form. Objects are available again to the senses but with limitations and understanding gained along the way.
This quest for something earlier is the story of Zion’s struggle. The humans seek to restore the civilization that existed at the highest point if human achievement late 20th early 21st century America. They have already rejected this civilization in its immediate form, the Matrix, due to its failure to satisfy completely their concept of reality. Neo demonstrates this dissatisfaction early in the first film in his search for Morpheus and the truth.
Later in the Oracle’s conversation with Neo she remarks that when Neo touched the Sentinels through the source he should have died, but part of him was not ready for that either. This brings to mind the passage at the beginning of this paper. Neo, at this point, has not realized what must be done; he is still shrinking from death and devastation. He does not fully realize that his own death is necessary and he does not understand until he battles Agent Smith and succumbs to the inevitable.
The Oracle does realize that death in necessary however. She tells Neo that she wants the same thing he wants, “and I’m willing to go as far as you are to get it.” The Oracle is willing to die to bring the end of the war and she does the same thing Neo does when facing Smith, though she knows from the outset what must happen and allows Smith to subsume her without a struggle.
Neo’s existence is a result of the failures of the first two types of the Matrix, the Heaven Matrix and Hell Matrix. I infer the existence of these two Matrices from the Architect’s statements at the end of Matrix: Reloaded. There the Architect describes his first attempt at enslaving humanity in a place where there was no pain, or disease or suffering of any kind, a perfect world. But people did not except this reality. Its concept was inadequate to the reality of the human mind. Minds rejected it. The second attempt, where the Architect tried to engineer negativity into the Matrix also failed.
Once again we see thesis and antithesis presented and the positing of the contradiction. This contradiction was choice. If people at some level chose to be in the Matrix then their minds will not reject it. Introducing choice into the Matrix created the systemic anomaly that is the cause of Neo. So Neo himself is the result of the Hegelian dialectic.
The notion of History also plays a role in this film. The back story given by the Architect at the end of the second film reveals that Neo is the sixth “one.” For Hegel History is teleological. That is, it has a definite ends towards which it moves. This telos is Freedom and Freedom for Hegel bears a strong resemblance to Spinoza’s Freedom. Absolute Spirit is totally free because it’s existence is self contained. Just as when in Spinoza, a person is in bondage when they cannot be described with out referring to an external object. Despite any changes in thesis this goal remains. During every Hegelian movement the end is Freedom.
The goal then for the History of the Matrix is Freedom for every thinking thing, including the Machines. To be free the minds in the Matrix must chose to be there. That choice would come from in them and thus they would not be in bondage. For the machines to be free they must release all those minds that they hold prisoner, because the machines have become dependent on the Minds for power they are in bondage.
History is the work of individuals. It is the sum total of all actions taken, though some contribute to the development of Spirit in the world and some do not. But all events are the actions of individuals. But individuals act based on their passions, will, and desires. It is the beauty of Spirit that this can be turned towards Spirit’s end.
History works on two levels. There are the myriad individuals each working for their own personal gain, according to their desires and wills, and then there is the manner in which these actions contribute to history. Hegel compares these to the warp and the woof of the tapestry of History. Two necessary parts but also separate.
One of the major factors in driving along the development of Spirit is the World Historical Figure. These WHF’s are men who understand that the telos of Spirit transcends human law and morality and thus offer themselves up to Spirit, fashioning their passions in accordance with the universal. In our world Caesar, Alexander the Great and Napoleon were World Historical Figures. In the Matrix Neo is. This surrender to Spirit is not rational. It is more on the level of a belief and so the surrender is an act that appears to result from an internal process.
We see Neo surrender to the universal in Inevitable and Over. Here Neo glimpses what must be done and surrenders to Smith, who does not come to understand until he sees himself start to annihilate in front of him. This as a result of Neo’s surrender Smith too gives in. The contradiction, Freedom, is posited and the Matrix is born anew. Though it remains to be seen if this form of Freedom is fully actualized or is just a greater degree of Freedom then existed before but is still not total. If the Freedom is incomplete then a new antithesis will arise, the peace will fail and the struggle will begin again.
