Real or Unreal - Blog 4

Jorge J.E. Gracia and Jonathan J. Sanford uses the terms “source” and “ontological status” to explain weather the Matrix is “unreal” or the world outside the matrix is “real”. They define the term ontological status as the way something simply exists as said on page 61 of The Matrix and Philosophy. The term source means to obtain from particular supplier or the origin of something. What they are saying is to find the ontological status of something is to find its source, if any. In one hand, they say that the world of the matrix is not real because, in terms of ontological status, we do not know all the sources in the world of the matrix. On the other hand, the world of the Matrix is real because it does not depend on something else to maintain their existence when the “real” world has to depend on humans to exist. I believe that if you cannot find the source of something, their ontological status does not exist. Therefore, I do agree with their assignment.