RATIONALE OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN ‘S

“INCEPTION” (2010)

THE LINK TO THE ALLEGORY OF PLATO’S THE

CAVE AND DESCARTES’ SKEPTICISM.

Subject: Philosophy 101

Lecturer: Mr. Gulvin

Class: 11BSM03

Group: N3T

Members:

Nguyen Minh Nguyen

Nguyen Quang Tuan

Tran Thi Thanh Tam

Truong Ngoc Lan Thanh

Summary of content:

Dominic Cobb is an extraction agent who is hired by a multi-millionaire to perform

inception - to plant an idea in someone's mind, without them knowing. To accomplish

this, Cobb (and his team) use something called "shared dreaming.“

Character:

• Cobb - orchestrates

• Ariadne - designs the dreams

• Saito - bankrolls

• Arthur - organizes

• Eames - puts on characters

• Yusuf - has the technical savvy

• Fischer - the mark

• Mal - Cobb’s wife

Did the spinning top fall?

Whenever Cobb is unsure whether he is awake or still dreaming, he takes out his totem

(top) and spins it. If it continually spins, that indicates that he is still dreaming, but if it

falls that is supposed to assure him that he is awake. At the end of the film, when he

returns to his children, Cobb spins his top one final time to see if he is awake - but his

kids distract him, and the film finishes before we see whether it falls or not.

Whether the top falls or not doesn’t matter!

Consider how totems work.

You are never supposed to let anyone else touch your totem because they might figure

out how it is supposed to behave in the real world. And if they do, the totem will not be

able to tell you whether or not you are in their dream.

Cobb is not the only one who knows how his totem works.

When Ariadne calls totems an "elegant solution for keeping track of reality" and asks

Cobb if it was his idea, he just told Ariadne how it works!

The top was once Mal's - so she knows how it works too. So, even if the top did fall at the

end of the movie, Cobb could still be in Ariadne's or Mal's dream.

Cobb’s totem is backwards

How do tops behave in the real world? Wouldn't you assume that it would fall? Isn't that

how tops behave in the real world? So, if Cobb spins a top in your dream, he should

expect it to fall!

Cobb's totem is backwards!1 Its behavior should be unique in the real world. Instead, its

behavior in the real world is ordinary (it falls) and in a dream it's unique (it spins

continuously.) Everyone knows that tops fall, but no one can know how Cobb's totem

works in the real world if it is going to be reliable as a dream detector.

So, more than likely, the top did fall at the end of the film.

It was all a dream?

Cobb could be in his, Ariadne's, Mal's...or anyone's dream for that matter. Cobb's totem is

not reliable. And, truth to be told, neither is Cobb. Cobb is the one who spends most of

the time telling the audience how things work—totems, shared dreaming, Limbo. But we

can't be sure that any of it is accurate. Were they still dreaming?

1 Author@Google: Kyle Johnson “Inception and Philosophy”

Might the entire movie have been a dream?

In fact, Christopher Nolan seems to have left multiple clues that suggest Cobb is

dreaming—dreaming the entire movie, even when he is supposed to be in the real world.

The chase scene in Mombasa, has many dream-like qualities. Not only do

the overhead shots establish that Mombasa is a maze - just like one of Ariadne's designed

dreams - but agents inexplicably pop up around every corner and the walls of buildings

literally close in around Cobb - just like they do in a dream.

Consider where Mal sits as she threatens suicide: in the window of another hotel

room across from their suite. If she had climbed out their window, she would be on the

same side of the building as Cobb. Yet her inexplicably being in the window of another

hotel room is exactly the kind of thing that happens in a dream. In fact, when Cobb

speaks to his father-in- law Miles about Mal's death and getting home to his children,

Miles specifically tells him to "Come back to reality."

The song the dreamers use to herald the end of a dream is Edith Piaf's original

recording of "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" (No, I Regret Nothing.)2 When the song is done,

the dream is over. That recording is 2 minutes and 28 seconds. Inception is, exactly, 2

hours and 28 minutes. Could it be, just like with shared dreaming, when the movie is

done, the dream is over?

Life is a dream?

This is a classic philosophical problem, first hinted at by Plato but most clearly

articulated by Descartes.

2 Psychology.com/inception-and-philosophy

The allegory of Plato’s The Cave and Inception

Plato gives us the allegory of the cave: A group of prisoners forced to watch shadows on

the wall of a cave since birth. The shadows are all they have ever known. They think the

shadows are the highest reality and are perfectly happy living a life of "shadow games."

But when one of the prisoners breaks loose and learns about the real world outside the

cave, he looks back at his former life and pities those still stuck in it. In fact, he returns to

teach them about the true nature of reality. Unfortunately, they reject this and try to kill

him.

Plato's message is that there is something intrinsically valuable about knowledge – about

knowing the way the world really is. And that makes knowledge preferable to blissful

ignorance, even when the truth is uncomfortable.

• A group of prisoners, forced to

watch shadows on the wall of a

cave since birth. The shadows are

all they have ever known; they

think the shadows are the highest

reality and are perfectly happy

living a life of "shadow games.“

• But when one of the prisoners

breaks loose and learns about the

real world outside the cave he looks

back at his former life and pities

• As the people in the cave believe

they are in the real world, and will

fight to stay there, the main

characters of Inception has the

world that they believe to be real.

• “You are just a shade of my real

life.” Cobb admits while talking to

Mal of the dream world that she is

only a shadow of reality.

• Mal is uncomfortable living in the

world which is believed is the real

those still stuck in it.

• There is something intrinsically

valuable about knowledge – about

knowing the way the world really

is. And that makes knowledge

preferable to blissful ignorance,

even when the truth is

uncomfortable.

• Projection of the shadows on the

cave wall

• The shadows were projected onto

the walls

world by Cobb. Over time, she

doesn't know which world is reality

anymore. She becomes trapped

within the dream world completely,

and kills herself to stay in that

world – the world she’s comfortable

living with.

• Creating dreamscapes

• They presented specific skewed

ideas to dreamers

Descartes’ Skepticism and Inception

Is Cobb in a dream or reality? And perhaps, can he know whether or not he’s dreaming?

Descartes pondered the same question back in 1641 in his Meditations on First

Philosophy. He argued essentially that because we can’t know whether or not we’re

dreaming, knowledge is impossible.

Descartes then set out trying to solve the problem in order to create a foundation for

knowledge. The cogito – “I think, therefore I am” – was a partial solution to the problem

by providing a basis for knowledge of our own selves. Knowledge of the external world,

on the other hand, requires a further counter to the Dream Argument. What that basically

means is that in order to have any knowledge beyond our own existence, we need to be

able to distinguish dreams from reality.3

But the premise behind Inception is ultimately a rejection of Descartes’ solution to the

Dream Argument. Even when Cobb’s dreaming in the movie, he’s aware of the

possibility that he might be dreaming. Since the impossibility of considering within a

dream that you might be dreaming is what proves for Descartes that you’re awake, then

in the movie it’s impossible to tell whether you’re dreaming or not.

That’s why Inception could only have ended in doubt over whether Cobb’s dreaming or

awake. What distinguishes dreams from reality for Descartes is that it can’t occur to us

within a dream that we might be dreaming. By supposing that we can, Inception makes

dreams indistinguishable from reality.

Inception explores the philosophical problem of whether we can truly know whether

we’re dreaming or not.

• René Descartes, in 1639, worried

that all of reality might be a dream.

What distinguishes dream from

reality?

• Whenever Cobb is unsure about

whether he’s dreaming or not, he

spins his totems. In fact, he’s been

wondering all the time.

3 Philosophynow.org/inception

• Descartes tell us that we cannot

dream what we have not

experienced

• It is impossible to consider within a

dream that you might be dreaming

is what proves for Descartes that

you’re awake, then in the movie it’s

impossible to tell whether you’re

dreaming or not.

• Dreamers who create the worlds or

‘levels’ of the dreams always use

pieces of places that are familiar to

them4

• Even when Cobb’s dreaming in the

movie, he’s aware of the possibility

that he might be dreaming.

Inception ends in doubt over

whether Cobb is still dreaming or

awake

References:

Author@Google: Kyle Johnson “Inception and Philosophy”

Psychology.com/inception-and-philosophy

Philosophynow.org/inception

Skepticnorth.com/inception

4 Skepticnorth.com/inception