Putnam’s argument is designed to attack the possibility of global skepticism that is implied … See more

The major premise that underwrites Putnam’s argument is what he calls a “causal constraint” on reference: To understand this criterion we need to unravel what is me… See more

Brueckner (1986) argues that even if we grant the reasoning of the above argument up to (4), the most the argument proves is that if we are brains in a vat, then the sentence “… See more

Ted Warfield (1995) has sought to provide an argument that we are not brains in a vat based on considerations of self-knowledge. He defends two premises that seem reasonably … See more

Some philosophers have claimed that even if Putnam’s argument is sound, it doesn’t do much to dislodge Cartesian or global skepticism. Crispin Wright (1994) argues that the arg… See more