how does the movie Dark City relate to descartes' 2nd meditation?

Question

can someone give me some hints, i dont really understand..

Answer 1

The objectives of the aliens in 'Dark City' are actually very similar to those of Descartes... they even engage, to some extent, in some of the same methodology!

By the time Descartes comes to his second meditation, he has concluded fairly soundly something that many of us would have taken for granted - that he exists. But now he's faced with an even more daunting question: What can be said of Descartes OTHER than the simple fact that he exists? Or in other words, now that he is sure to exist, who is he sure to be?

As with the first meditation, he entirely discards everything that he supposedly knows as information. His memories, his sensory impressions, and all the contents of his mind are suspect. They could be false; implanted by some malicious entity perhaps. He spends much of the second meditation trying to decide what he knows about himself in spite of this skepticism.

Curiously enough, in the movie 'Dark City', there ARE malicious entities who are specificially altering the environment of the city and all the memories of the people in it. This leaves the main character, who 'wakes up' in the beginning of the movie, with the exact same conundrum: He has a bunch of memories that are probably false... so if he is not the product of his memories, who is the REAL him?

In the movie, what the aliens are looking for is the human soul. That is (to them) the one inner, unchanging element that persists in spite of all their manipulations. Descartes ends up deciding something not too different, working through his many reasonings to decide that most of what he doubted in the first place was pretty reliable anyway.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

I don't know about Descartes second meditation but it might have something to do with the fact that what we believe is the truth has a lot to do with our memories.