PHL 100 Lecture 11: Putnam's Brain in a Vat
18 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Suppose a biv case is like this: The machine deceiving the biv came into existence by some highly improbable cosmic accident. The brain has always been in the vat. It was not taken out of a body and put in the vat. So the biv has never experienced anything in the real world. If everything putnam has said about reference is right, then the biv does not think about trees, people, birds, wc or anything else. Has never met anyone who has seen a tree. Thus, he cannot intend to refer to trees. Bivs like this would still use the word tree just like they do whether or not there is a tree or if trees had ever existed. The biv thinks thoughts like that is a pretty tree but what he means by tree is not what i mean. Bivs like this think about and talk about vat-trees, vat-dogs, and so on.
