Brain In A Vat

We know very little about the universe, reality, ourselves, God, ethics, and science.

You could be a brain floating inside of a vat, connected to wires that are sending you simulated sensations that you are sitting or standing on a planet you call earth while reading this blog post on a phone, tablet, or computer.

Does that strike you as absurd?  Many might think so.  But when examined more thoroughly, possibilities like this actually demonstrate the limits of our potential knowledge, our senses, and our perceptions.  What can we truly know?  What truths are axioms--self-evident and true by inescapable necessity--and what beliefs are nothing more than illusions?  What beliefs are verifiable and which ones are not?  Anyone truly concerned with finding reality and truth will accept hypotheticals as possible and admit the restrictions of their epistemological faculties.



The brain in a vat hypothesis is a mere single example of the limitations of human
epistemology.  It provides an example of something that is entirely logically
possible while at the same time wholly unverifiable and unfalsifiable.

There are indeed things we can know for sure with 100% logical certainty: the existence of the self, truths about the self, the existence and reliability of logic and reason, axioms, the existence of a first cause, mathematical truths.  However, many of these things involve either knowledge of the self or self-verifying proofs of abstract ideas linking premises to conclusions; there is very little, if anything, outside of them that we can know with 100% certainty.  But that stops almost no one from making assertions and dogmatic statements that cannot be verified about everything from aesthetics to science to morality to theology to history.

I remember that years ago, before I entered philosophy or apologetics, as a younger Christian I felt threatened by people bringing up philosophical concepts like the possibility that I am a brain in a vat having my senses stimulated by a scientist to perceive the external world as it appears to me.  At this point in my life, I recognize that Christianity can be true even if seemingly far-fetched scenarios like this are correct.  Whether I am a brain in a vat or not, I am still experiencing at least distortions of reality, making my own choices, and I will ultimately be responsible for my own conclusions and decisions.  Whatever moral or theological ideas turn out to be true, I must simply accept the ramifications of my own actions.  If I am wrong, I must bear the consequences.

Any seeker of truth will challenge assumptions, truth claims, and ideas.  Few understand the true nature of reality--that outside of the knowable truths I listed above, almost everything we think is true may not reflect reality at all.  The people we love may not even exist; our current scientific beliefs may be entirely flawed; we could be inside of an alien simulation; God could have had someone write dozens of books that were never included in the Bible; we could be within a vast multiverse unaware of what exists right outside our own universe; many people may find one day that their most cherished values and ethical beliefs, the ones that provide motivation and the deepest of hope, are nothing but false notions that have actually damned them.

There is very little, by comparison to what some say, that we can truly know, yet few realize this and act and live accordingly.  The next time you are about to make a claim about something, remember this fact.  And the next time you hear someone firmly state a claim about something, maybe you should remind them about this also.