Of Brains in Vats, Whatever Brains in Vats May Be

Philosophical Studies 112 (3):225-249 (2003)
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Abstract

Hilary Putnam has offered two arguments to show that we cannotbe brains in a vat, and one to show that our cognitive situationcannot be fully analogous to that of brains in a vat. The latterand one of the former are irreparably flawed by misapplicationsof, or mistaken inferences from, his semantic externalism; thethird yields only a simple logical truth. The metaphysical realismthat is Putnams ultimate target is perfectly consistent withsemantic externalism.

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10.1023/a:1023075527458

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Bredo Johnsen
University of Houston

Citations of this work

Semantic self-knowledge and the vat argument.Joshua Rowan Thorpe - 2019 - Philosophical Studies 176 (9):2289-2306.

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References found in this work

Brains in a Vat.Hilary Putnam - 2000 - In Sven Bernecker & Fred I. Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: readings in contemporary epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1-21.
Brains in a Vat.Hilary Putnam - 1999 - In Keith DeRose & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), Skepticism: a contemporary reader. New York: Oxford University Press.

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