Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A potential loophole in Putnam's reference theory is that a brain on Earth that is "kidnapped", placed into a vat, and subjected to a simulation could still refer to brains and vats which are real in the sense of Putnam, and thus correctly say it is a brain in a vat according to Putnamian reference theory. [18]
A "brain in a vat"—Putnam uses this thought experiment to argue that skeptical scenarios are impossible. In epistemology, Putnam is known for his argument against skeptical scenarios based on the "brain in a vat" thought experiment (a modernized version of Descartes's evil demon hypothesis).
The philosopher Hilary Putnam (1975/1985) proposed this position and summarized it with the statement "meanings just ain't in the head!". Although he did not use the term "externalism" at the time, Putnam is thought to have pioneered semantic externalism in his 1975 paper "The Meaning of 'Meaning '".
John McDowell, in his paper "Putnam on Mind and Meaning", [4] criticised Putnam for still having in play a latent commitment to a picture of the mind as modelled on the brain and located in the head. Putnam has since conceded the point and subscribes to McDowell's neo-Wittgensteinian therapeutic invocation of the mind as a structured system of ...
In the field of epistemology, he is known for his critique of the well known "brain in a vat" thought experiment. This thought experiment appears to provide a powerful argument for epistemological skepticism , but Putnam challenges its coherence.
Despite the reduced brain matter, the man lived a relatively normal life; he was a married civil servant with two kids. He also scored an IQ of 75 which is considered low but not disabled.
A human torso was found inside a suitcase that was floating in the East River near Governor’s Island on Wednesday evening, according to cops and law enforcement sources.
A similar problem to what is outlined above, some of Putnam's accomplishments do not include dates on when they were first published or gained widespread fame. For example, when was the "brain in a vat" thought experiment first proposed? When did he show that "there are many levels of the constructible hierarchy that add no subsets of the ...