Welcome to the Real World

                The readings for today dealt with rhetoric, knowledge, and epistemology. I believe the first two readings were largely similar and led to a world view that there is no objective reality and that “truth” is created through rhetoric. These articles made me think of the Matrix because in the beginning, Neo believes in one “reality” but soon learns about the real “reality.” This movie helped me understand how truth and reality are constantly being created.

                Barry Brummett’s article is broken into four sections. He first tries to explain the mechanistic or objective point of view which tried to move one “closer and closer to the perception of objective reality.” (25) Brummett discards this point of view because he believes that one can never observe reality without a preconceived bias. He states that “observation is participation” and that “objects are not observed entirely in themselves and apart but as part of some background or context.” (26) Since no one can ever view the world objectively, the only reality anyone will ever know is what they experience and observe. And different people will observe the world in different ways and therefore can have different versions of reality.

                Brummett called this idea intersubjective reality. Since reality is what we observe and experience, “we must participate in making reality.” (28) It is through experience that people create meaning and therefore their reality. In the Matrix, Neo begins the movie believing that his world is reality. He participates, observes, and experiences it. However, something in his own experience makes him believe that there is something more. He actively seeks out (read participate) Morpheus. When they meet, he takes the pill and it changes his reality. If he had never sought out Morpheus or taken the pill, he would have chosen to participate in his constructed reality. Instead he chooses to participate and changes/remakes his reality.

                Brummett continues his article by stating that the meanings we have about our world are created through communication. Rhetoric creates meaning. Neo knows the matrix as reality because it’s all he’s ever known. He cannot perceive that he is really asleep and therefore has no idea. Morpheus converses with Neo and through the use of rhetoric tells him about the real real world. It is through the use of rhetoric that Neo’s conception of reality changes. His whole context changes which shapes his meanings for everything: his past memories and his current world.

                Brummett also stresses the point that the more shared a meaning is, the more true it appears. He states that “the point here is that wherever meanings are shared they are shared only because discourse has the power to induce people to participate in that shared reality.” (31) This idea of truth is heightened if one’s significant others also believe in it. The matrix seems so real because everyone in it believed in its constructed reality. Agents patrol the matrix in order to keep the current discourse supporting their reality. However, discourse “may be used to change the reality.” (31) Throughout the movie Morpheus converses with Neo and tries to convince him of the fakeness of the matrix and his own status as the “one.” It is through Neo’s own observations and these conversations that he begins to accept the new reality as the truth. His acceptance may also be heightened by his developing relationship with Trinity. Since she believes in the reality and his status, he becomes more apt to believe in it as well as he falls in love with her. Morpheus in the Matrix uses rhetoric to change Neo’s realty. In Brummett’s words, he is a “creative individual” who causes “radical changes in an ever-changing reality.” (32)