Re:The Brain in a Vat Argument
by brudgers on Friday December 13, 2013 @12:29PM
(#6901706)
If Hillary Putnam practices 'quack philosophy' then it is only because philosophy admits duck typing. And alas, it's duck typing all the way down to the turtle.
If we are brains in vats, then the hypothesis that we are brains in vats is only brains-in-vats-falsifiable, unless one includes the very premise of metaphysical reality that Putnam is suggesting is in need of justification.
Keep in mind that Putnam's paper substantially predates The Matrix and that the search for the premises of scientific rationality goes back at least to Descartes, and that so far the two best solutions are still basically Kant's model of mediated access to reality and claims relying upon a priori that we have direct access to a reality as it exists outside human experience [see Nagal's What is it like to be a Bat?]
If we are brains in vats, then the hypothesis that we are brains in vats is only brains-in-vats-falsifiable, unless one includes the very premise of metaphysical reality that Putnam is suggesting is in need of justification.
Keep in mind that Putnam's paper substantially predates The Matrix and that the search for the premises of scientific rationality goes back at least to Descartes, and that so far the two best solutions are still basically Kant's model of mediated access to reality and claims relying upon a priori that we have direct access to a reality as it exists outside human experience [see Nagal's What is it like to be a Bat?]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_it_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F