201242405
Phil 2B
Skalk
Tutorial Assignment 1
Brain in a vat, Putnams solution to scepticism
To deal with the problem of scepticism Putnam asks us humans to imagine that we are brains. These brains are controlled by a scientist and he has placed them in a vat( a different vat for each brain) where he is able to press a certain button and the brains are able to produce an experience. The brains lack physical features in fact the physical world does not exist. This scientist can even go as producing collective hallucinations (Putnam, 1981:6). This means that different brains can engage in collective activities for example they can have conversations and play football together (ibid). Putnam raises this analogy to deal with sceptics about the …show more content…
This is a statement whose truth actually means that it is false. For example I do not think is a self refuting statement because this statement was thought by me. If it was thought by me I can be certain that thinking was occurring for me to utter that statement (Putnam, 1981: 8). The Brain in a vat breeds the same problem of being self- refuting. We cannot be brains in a vat due to our use of concepts. By concepts we do not just simply mean the ‘test of reference’ Putnam refers to in page 8. The test of reference is when we use the same words to refer to the same things regardless of whatever language we use(ibid).Concepts go beyond this for you to speak about an object you need to have had an experience with that object to have a full understanding of it. For you to understand that lemon is bitter you need to have tasted lemon, and comprehend what is bitterness according to lemon. If we were brains in a vat our experiences would not make sense we would know lemon is bitter but we would lack the understanding of how does the bitterness of lemon tastes like. We could extend as far as saying we would not understand the difference between the bitter taste of lemon and the bitter taste of sour worms. Concepts are words, sentences combined together to convey a message that you can only understand when you interact with your external
Phil 2B
Skalk
Tutorial Assignment 1
Brain in a vat, Putnams solution to scepticism
To deal with the problem of scepticism Putnam asks us humans to imagine that we are brains. These brains are controlled by a scientist and he has placed them in a vat( a different vat for each brain) where he is able to press a certain button and the brains are able to produce an experience. The brains lack physical features in fact the physical world does not exist. This scientist can even go as producing collective hallucinations (Putnam, 1981:6). This means that different brains can engage in collective activities for example they can have conversations and play football together (ibid). Putnam raises this analogy to deal with sceptics about the …show more content…
This is a statement whose truth actually means that it is false. For example I do not think is a self refuting statement because this statement was thought by me. If it was thought by me I can be certain that thinking was occurring for me to utter that statement (Putnam, 1981: 8). The Brain in a vat breeds the same problem of being self- refuting. We cannot be brains in a vat due to our use of concepts. By concepts we do not just simply mean the ‘test of reference’ Putnam refers to in page 8. The test of reference is when we use the same words to refer to the same things regardless of whatever language we use(ibid).Concepts go beyond this for you to speak about an object you need to have had an experience with that object to have a full understanding of it. For you to understand that lemon is bitter you need to have tasted lemon, and comprehend what is bitterness according to lemon. If we were brains in a vat our experiences would not make sense we would know lemon is bitter but we would lack the understanding of how does the bitterness of lemon tastes like. We could extend as far as saying we would not understand the difference between the bitter taste of lemon and the bitter taste of sour worms. Concepts are words, sentences combined together to convey a message that you can only understand when you interact with your external