foreign [Music] hello and welcome to philosophy Vibe the channel where we discuss and debate different philosophical ideas today we're going to be looking into a very interesting thoughts experiment and that is the brain in a vet great so the brain in a vet thought experiment is a scenario used to highlight how uncertain our knowledge is and ultimately lead one to philosophical skepticism and even solipsism in this video I will be explaining the brain in a vat scenario and then we will debate this to see if it really is a good argument in favor of skepticism okay so explain the scenario very well so then imagine everything you perceive is not in fact real everything around you the whole external world all the people in your life everything is fake including your own body in fact all you are is a disembodied brain in a vat a mad scientist has your brain in a that in his laboratory this mad scientist has connected wires to your brain fitted them onto all your neurons and is projecting this reality onto your brain you then see and experience this world and this reality but really everything you see is not real just stimuli on your brain from this mad scientist computer and in reality all you are is this brain floating in a vet with a bunch of wires connected your entire world your entire reality is false well quite a dark thoughts experiment yes but think about it you could never conclusively know that you are not a brain in a vat if you are a brain in a vat then the reality the mad scientist is projecting is all you know you think that is life so because you can't prove this is not the case you cannot then rule it out meaning any knowledge you attain in your life in your reality will always have a question mark when you see a tree or when you see the sun rise it can always be questioned is this really real or is this just a projection from the mad scientist onto my embedded brain as such all knowledge is then thrown into doubt nothing can be certain the whole external world can indeed be a huge fake projection and so we become philosophical Skeptics never truly believing we have full concrete knowledge fascinating I should note that the brain in a vat has taken a few different forms over the years most notably Renee descar's evil demon theory in his meditations and more recently simulation theory has been seen as a type of brain and of that theory we have done videos on these so do check them out so then does the brain in a vet scenario give one good grounds in becoming a philosophical skeptic I think it's a really interesting fun sci-fi type Theory and yes it does have some Merit to it philosophers have always questioned how real the external world is however I don't think this is enough to render all truth unattainable I would in fact like to challenge the idea that we cannot prove we are not brains in Vats I actually think the statement I am a brain in a vat can be demonstrated to be false really yes how so okay so here I would like to bring up Hillary partner's response to the brain and of that thought experiment by focusing on causal connection what's that right so for words or ideas to have meaning they need to be connected to what they represent meaning is not intrinsic to a word or an idea so there needs to be a causal connection Putnam gives the example of an ant crawling on a patch of sand imagine that the ants Footprints by chance end up carving out an image of Winston Churchill now this looks exactly like Winston Churchill however we wouldn't say that the ant meant to do this there was no intention here it was pure luck and the reason we know there is no intention is because there is no causal connection the ant does not know who Winston Churchill is the answer is never seen Churchill has no idea of Churchill as such there is no causal connection so we would not say that the ant Drew Winston Churchill the ants merely made some squiggles of which we see Churchill yes I understand language is the same imagine there is a twin earth exactly the same as Earth however on twin earth what they refer to as cats we refer to as dogs so when someone on twin earth says cats they are not referring to this the causal connection is to something that looks like this the intention and meaning is completely different I understand but what does it this have to do with the brain in a vat well because of this causal connection if someone was actually a brain in a vet if they uttered the words I am a brain in a vat they are talking about a brain as they understand it and of that as they understand it as in they are referring to a brain in the simulated world and a vat in the simulated World they can only refer to the causal connections of the fake World they perceive they have no understanding or experience of the real world if you were a brain in a vat you can only reference the fake world you have no causal connection to anything beyond that you are not talking about a real brain or a real that whatever that would be you have no relationship with the real world your reference is to a fake simulated world and therefore something that is force something that doesn't actually exist your causal connection is to an image that a mad scientist has produced so then if a brain in a vat was us to say I am a brain in a vat then this statement is false as they are only referring to their understanding of brains and Vats which is simulated and therefore a falsehood likewise if you are not a brain in the vat and you say I am a brainer navat this statement is false as you are not a brain into that either way whatever way you look at it the statement I am a brain in a vat is false this was putnam's point the statement itself is incoherent if a brain in a vat says it it is a falsehood if a non-brainer of that says it it is still a falsehood that's an interesting argument however I don't think it proves that one is not a brain an event really well yes this is just a case of semantics it's down to language and meaning but ultimately it doesn't render the possibility that one's reality is entirely projected any less likely and even with putnam's criticism it doesn't even address a newly vetted brain that's to say someone born in the real world and captured by the mad scientist and had their brain extracted and put in the vat this is still a huge problem for putnam's argument how is it a problem because the newly vetted brain has experience of the real world right they had a relationship with it so when they use their language there is a causal connection so if a newly vetted brain says I am a brain in a vat they do know what they're talking about as they have had experience of the real world so putnam's argument wouldn't even cover this scenario okay let's suppose you think you are a brain in a vat then you would say the mad scientist lives in the real world and has embedded you but what is to stop the scientists thinking that they are a brain in of that and they have been captured by another mad scientist and this scientist also thinks that they are a brain in a vet and so on and so on essentially there needs to be a base reality right there needs to be a real reality where the brains are being inverted so why not this one why must you be the brain in a vat why can't you think this is the true reality I'm no arguing that it isn't I'm just arguing that we don't know and that's the point we don't know if this is the real world or if we are brains in a vat with a simulated reality and it's because we can't rule it out that we become Skeptics it's because it cannot be proven false that we must question all our knowledge as there is a possibility that nothing we perceive is real hmm if you enjoyed this discussion then I recommend you check out the philosophy Vibe metaphysics paperback Anthology available on Amazon this is a compilation of all our metaphysics video scripts all into one book a great read and a great study guide and no doubt you'll find it really interesting philosophy of mind is covered so is philosophy of perception Free Will determinism and more the links to Amazon are below and all Book Sales really help out this channel but that's all the time we have for now thank you for watching we hope you enjoyed the vibe and what does everyone else think are you a brain in a vat should you be skeptical in all knowledge in this reality let us know in the comments below also make sure you check out our videos on simulation Theory and solipsism as they are very closely related to the brain and of that theory if you did enjoy this video please like and share and for more philosophical debates please subscribe to the channel take care and we look forward to seeing you all soon bye bye