Additional reflections on Putnam, Wright and Brains in Vats

Noonan, Harold W.

Abstract

Putnam’s argument against the sceptical Brain-in-a-Vat hypothesis continues to intrigue. I argue in what follows that the argument refutes a particular kind of sceptic and make a proposal about its more general significance. To appreciate the soundness of the argument, I explain, we need to appreciate that the sceptic’s contention is that I cannot know that I am not a brain in a vat even if I am not. This is why in response to the sceptic it is legitimate to make a transition from knowing that a sentence is true to knowing the truth it expresses, which is the crucial move in the argument.

Citation

Noonan, H. W. (2016). Additional reflections on Putnam, Wright and Brains in Vats. Metaphysica, 17(2), https://doi.org/10.1515/mp-2016-0016

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 9, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 9, 2018
• Journal: Metaphysica
• Print ISSN: 1437-2053
• Electronic ISSN: 1874-6373
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mp-2016-0016
• Keywords: Brain-in-a-Vat; scepticism; Putnam; Wright
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/803117
• Publisher URL: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mp.2016.17.issue-2/mp-2016-0016/mp-2016-0016.xml