The Matrix Resurrections (movie) is going to be released soon and I am looking forward to watching the movie. Even though I wasn’t a big fan of the second and third parts, I was deeply impressed by the first Matrix movie. Not so much for its (then) revolutionary action scenes than some of the more philosophical parts of the movie, like taking the blue or red pill.
And yet, the idea of the Matrix was nothing new to me. I had studied Ancient Greek in high school and one of the texts we read was Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” from The Republic.
[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
[Glaucon] I see.[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
[Socrates] Like ourselves, I replied.
The renowned British philosopher A.N Whitehead once commented on Plato's thought: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. While I can’t judge if this is really true, the idea of the Matrix is right there in Plato’s dialogue. We did read another passage in Plato’s Republic, the way Plato saw the ideal state:
Guardians (philosopher-kings, bound by reason)
Auxiliaries (warriors, artisans, etc. bound by spirit/honor)
Producers (bound by appetite)
At that time I was actually mildly shocked by Plato’s ideas as they struck me as anti-democratic. A ruling class of philosophers may be better than a ruling military junta, but it is still anti-democratic. However, I recently discovered a different aspect of Plato’s classification of people according to functions in society and William Sheldon’s work. Sheldon is famous for his work on body types, however, Sheldon regarded these types holistically and he assigned them also temperaments dominated by brain, body and stomach, the very same distinction Plato made:
evolutionary type | hunter-gatherer | pastoralist | farmer |
Plato | philosopher king | auxiliaries | producers |
William Sheldon body type | ectomorph | mesomorph | endomorph |
William Sheldon temperament | cerebrotonic | somatotonic | viscerotonic |
The Platonic soul consists of three parts which are located in different regions of the body:
the logos (λογιστικόν), or logistikon, located in the head, is related to reason and regulates the other parts.
the thymos (θυμοειδές), or thumoeides, located near the chest region, is related to spirit.
the eros (ἐπιθυμητικόν), or epithumetikon, located in the stomach, is related to one's desires.
In his treatise the Republic, and also with the chariot allegory in Phaedrus, Plato asserted that the three parts of the psyche also correspond to the three classes of a society (viz. the rulers, the military, and the ordinary citizens). (from: Wikipedia)
I have argued that these different types correspond to evolutionary types according to our ancestral subsistence strategies: foraging, pastoralism and agriculture. To Plato it made sense the the most thinking types make up the leaders, the somatotonic pastoralist the best warriors and the most common type, farmer types, the food producers. Ironically, forager types for the most part of history have made up the lowest classes. It only takes a brief glance at contemporary foragers to prove this point: Native Americans have the highest rates of unemployment and homelessness in the United States and the San in Africa and Aborigines in Australia are hardly better off. The same is true for Northern Eurasian (e.g. the Ket) peoples who have until recently been foragers.
One of Plato’s ideas that has inspired popular cultures as well as philosophy is the idea of “soulmate”. According to Plato 'Symposium', "Love is a desire for beauty - a value that transcends the particularities of the physical body." Plato's idea about soulmates is "[Each] one longed for its other half, and so they would throw their arms about each other, weaving themselves together, wanting to grow together."
David Keirsey, who was influenced by Plato, took up the idea of soulmates. He most likely misunderstood Plato’s typology, as Plato called the ruling class “guardians” but intending “hunters” not “farmers” (still the label is a perfectly good one). Keirsey assigned different types of romantic partners to each group: mindmates to NT, soulmates to NF, playmates to SP and helpmates to SJ types. So, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that Plato, who is usually typed as NF (INFJ), was the one who came up with the idea of a soulmate. Later Helen Fisher found in her research of dating sites that NT (which Fisher labels “philosopher-king” and “director”) and NF (idealist) types tend to attract each other, both looking for soulmates (there is, after all, not such a huge difference between a mindmate and a soulmate).
The evolutionary picture that emerges from Plato:
If Pato was alive he probably would be somewhat pleased. Philosopher types are still interested in his idea, and it is these types who are most likely to believe in the existence of a Matrix (simulated reality), e.g. Elon Musk (INTJ) or philosopher Nick Bostrom (INTP). His philosopher types are still looking for soulmates (yes, Elon, you had her) and are frequently found among the ruling, intellectual elites: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg are just a few examples. If you check out the Times’ list of most influential people in 2021 you will find that hunter-gatherer types are overrepresented:
https://manofmany.com/lifestyle/time100-most-influential-people-2021
Many of these influential people even have the distinct ectomorph body type of hunter-gatherers, like Vitalik Buterin (Canadian-Russian programmer).
What I am less sure of, is how much Plato would like the kind of materialist world we live in nowadays. After all, he was an idealist.
Check out my book for more on the three "tribes":
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