Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A brain in a vat that believes it is walking. In philosophy, the brain in a vat (BIV) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, consciousness, and meaning.
Process reliabilism has been used as an argument against philosophical skepticism, such as the brain in a vat thought experiment. [1] Process reliabilism is a form of epistemic externalism . [ 1 ]
The "brain in a vat" hypothesis is cast in contemporary scientific terms. It supposes that one might be a disembodied brain kept alive in a vat and fed false sensory signals by a mad scientist . Further, it asserts that since a brain in a vat would have no way of knowing that it was a brain in a vat, you cannot prove that you are not a brain in ...
For Putnam, the working hypothesis represents a practical starting point in the design of an empirical research exploration. A contrasting example of this conception of the working hypothesis is illustrated by the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment. This experiment involves confronting the global skeptic position that we, in fact, are all just ...
A contemporary version of the argument originally given by Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy (i.e., that he could not trust his perceptions on the grounds that an evil demon might, conceivably, be controlling his every experience), the brain in a vat is the idea that a brain can be fooled into anything when fed appropriate stimuli.
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).
To clarify how this argument is supposed to work: Imagine that there is brain in a vat, and a whole world is being simulated for it. Call the individual who is being deceived "Steve." When Steve is given an experience of walking through a park, semantic externalism allows for his thought, "I am walking through a park" to be true so long as the ...
A modern twist on Descartes' argument is provided by the "brain in a vat" thought experiment, which imagines a brain, sustained apart from its body in a vat of nutrients, and hooked up to a computer which is capable of stimulating it in such a way as to produce the illusion that everything is normal. [59]