mind & identity · new to this edition
the brain in a vat
a brain kept alive in a tank, fed a perfect imitation of the world. hilary putnam argued that you can know you are not one. the argument works best against the version you should fear least.
René Descartes asked how he could know that an evil demon was not feeding him the whole of his experience. The modern version swaps the demon for a laboratory: a brain in a tank of nutrients, its nerve endings wired to a computer that supplies everything it sees, hears and feels. In the first chapter of Reason, Truth and History (1981), Hilary Putnam argued that this story, told about yourself, refutes itself. Answer each step before reading on. The second step quietly decides how you will judge the third, and the fourth asks which version of the story should worry you.
could you be a brain in a vat right now?
Putnam asks you to imagine the most thorough version of the story. There is no mad scientist. The universe, by some cosmic accident, consists of nothing but a vat of nutrients, a brain, and automatic machinery wired to it. The brain has been there for its whole existence. The machinery gives it exactly the experiences you are having now: this screen, the weight of your hands, the sound of the room.
The brain is not unhappy. It thinks it is reading an article about brains in vats.
Can you be sure that this is not your situation?
further reading
- brains in a vat (reason, truth and history, chapter 1) original paper
- brains in a vat original paper
- skepticism and content externalism stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
- brain in a vat argument internet encyclopedia of philosophy
- the matrix as metaphysics original paper