Hilary Putnam has died

was i the only one upset it wasnt the more well-known Hilary?

Student of Quine, also reddit thread https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Putnam

Hilary Putnam had many achievements in the field of philosophy. Here's some context about his concept of "brain in a vat"[1], in his 1981 book, "Reason, Truth and History".

The brain-in-a-vat concept was famously used in the The Matrix films.[2]

A summary from Philosophy Index: "The example supposes that a mad scientist has removed your brain, and placed it into a vat of liquid to keep it alive and active. The scientist has also connected your brain to a powerful computer, which sends neurological signals to the brain in the way the brain normally receives them. Thus, the computer is able to send your brain data to fool you into believing that you are still walking around in your body."

"The brain-in-a-vat thought experiment is generally used to ask the question: how do you know that you are not a brain in a vat? The question mirrors an early one from Descartes, which asks how you are to know that there is not an evil demon feeding false information to your senses. The essential conclusion is that, from the perspective of the brain itself, it is impossible to tell whether it is a brain in a vat or a brain in a skull." [1][3]

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Links: [1] http://www.philosophy-index.com/putnam/brain-vat/ [2] http://consc.net/papers/matrix.html [3] https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/Brains%20i...

Kripke is still here. I would add him to that list.

Most definitely.