The Truman Show, although a highly entertaining movie, has many connections to philosophical themes. By creating this false sense of reality in Seahaven, the movie presents an interesting idea about perception and reality. René Descartes, a famous philosopher, began asking questions about what reality was in his book Meditations. In order to begin to understand his place in the world Descartes first needed to gain an understanding of knowledge and truth. The journey that Descartes must endure on his quest for understanding reality is parallel to Truman’s determination to discover the truth about his own so-called reality. Descartes’s themes of discovering knowledge and seeking truth to understand one’s actuality are present throughout the Truman Show.

In Meditations, among the early assertions the Descartes makes is that he does not know what reality is. Descartes is certain that he has allowed himself to be muddled or fooled into believing certain truths, but he decides to end this path of deception. Descartes chooses to abandon his past knowledge in order to discover what is really true. Among the first types of knowledge Descartes discards is a posteriori knowledge, or knowledge that is acquired through experience. He reasons that this type of knowledge is subject to bias and falsehood that occurs from his own mind, not from any truth. He believes that he must discard his opinions because they were derived from the senses, which are deceptive and untrustworthy.

Similarly to Descartes skepticism of his a posteriori knowledge, Truman begins to doubt what he believes as well. After seeing his father, who he knows to be dead, Truman is uncertain about his life and the people who are in it. Truman begins to test the citizens of Seahaven and comes to the conclusion that he sees “loose threads, false steps and notices many ‘slips of the tongue.’” He becomes skeptical of even his own wife and holds a knife to her in hopes of gaining certainty. He begins to feel as though there is a plot and “everyone seems to be in on it.” Although Truman does not question every aspect of his reality, like the physical objects and composition of it, he no longer believes anything to be genuine. Similar to Descartes, Truman begins to doubt everyone around him. Truman’s abandonment of his posterior knowledge and his skepticism for the people around him is largely similar to Descartes method of doubt in uncovering reality.

As well as having similar methods in discovering what is real, Descartes provides an explanation of why Truman was forced into this false reality. In Meditations, Descartes presents the idea that an evil genius, or “malevolent demon” exists in order to deceive humans. This description of the evil genius is similar to that of Christof, the director and creator of The Truman Show. Christof is the person who created the concept of the television show in which Truman is trapped. Christof chooses the characters, the weather, and the circumstances of Truman’s life and keeps him from reality. Christof deceives Truman into believing that Seahaven is his reality. Christof is successful in his deception for 30 years of Truman’s life. It is not until Truman, like Descartes, begins questioning the life he lives can he discover the truth.

While Seahaven and all who inhabit it are a falsity, the one truth that Truman holds onto is that he is real. While the circumstances of his life may be planned and plotted, Truman has a mind, he has thoughts and doubts, and he therefore exists. No matter what falsity he may have believed, Descartes confidently asserts that he is a thinking being. He is able to doubt and question his reality and therefore he must have a mind that can reason. Descartes famous statement, “I think, therefore I am,” becomes the Archimedean point, or the basis of knowledge. This point is one that is crucial for The Truman Show. For, no matter how uncertain Truman was about those around him, he never doubts the realness of himself. The Truman Show, and Truman’s discovery of reality have strong similarities to Descartes Meditations. Although reality is a difficult concept to understand, both Descartes and Truman do so by doubting, asking questions, rejecting past knowledge, and remembering their own existence.

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Katie Gallagher