Brain in a Vat

Throughout the past week, lectures, articales, descartes, and films have all tried to bring to light to me that for all I know, I may very well not be anything more than a brain in a vat. There is no us to deny this because there is no way for us to hold the knowedge that we are not in fact, a brain in a vat. This is extremely frustrating, with all this talk of dystopias (see 1984, brave new world), it makes SENSE that I would be some sort of experiment, does it not? Today I read a paper with a possible objection to this argument which presents us with the harsh condition that we have no means of proving we are not brains in vats. Meaning that, our insensitivity to the idea of being brains in vats because "CLEARLY, I AM REAL, I SEE MY HANDS! IM REAL!", that insensitivity does not imply independence, meaning, in proving that we are not brains in vats, there is not necessarily a need for independence of our proof that we are not such, from our past experience, as reasoning.

Sure, thats really dense and you probably dont know (and trust me, you probably dont want to know) what I am talking about. (Although I have recently thought that the more uncomfortable a thought makes me, the more necessary it becomes for me to think about it, within reason, of course, as Leo Tolstoy can attest*).

But what really troubles me about all this--this "not knowing if im not this, or not that" thing is that---

by that same reasoning, I could broaden that perspective even more to say

How do I know i am not dreaming? How do I know that every concept I have ever learned even exists in reality? How does ANYONE know what reality is? What is reality? What is a brain? What is a vat?

What if there is a whole species of aliens who have some crazy complex way of dreaming that brings others temporarily into existence for merely the purpose of their dream---these people are real, have feelings, etc, but exist only because of an aliens dream?

How can one argue that wihtout appealing to past experience?

What I am getting from any of this is that it does not really matter in the end, because as David Hume concluded, (with his problem of induction---read it, im certainly not gonna try and explain it...) by nature, we will eventually just think "OH WELL" and go back to our daily lives.

Or commit suicide....

Anyways its time to get back to my reading...


^^WOW DID YOU SEE THAT?! I JUST EXEMPLIFIED MYSELF!


Well, Hope you get my point. If you do, Please let me know.







* Tolstoy thought too much about the meaning of life and became very depressed, even suicidal. He concluded that to think about those questions was a setup for depression, as well as a dead end. Maybe he's just lazy and negative...but who am I to judge?!

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