(audio included for paid subscribers)
What is mind? No matter.
What is matter? Never mind.
Brain-in-a-vat theory is a thought-experiment that asks us to imagine all of our experiences are being fed to us by wires instead of senses; from a computer instead of an external environment. Some Bond villain or evil demon could pop your brain out when you’re not looking, hook you up to a computer simulation of your reality, and you’d never know the difference. (This might have happened last Thursday, for all you know.) So far, this is just simple brain-in-a-vat theory, but we’re gonna take it a little further.
Log In or Register to Continue
"Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few."
George Berkeley (1685–1753) was an Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop best known for his theory of immaterialism, later called “subjective idealism.” He argued that material objects do not exist independently of perception; rather, their existence consists in being perceived (“esse est percipi”). Berkeley challenged the prevailing materialism of his time, seeking to defend spiritual principles and the role of God as the ultimate perceiver who sustains reality. His ideas influenced later thinkers such as David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and modern discussions of perception and reality.