What we’re about
Enjoy a beverage and discuss topics related to philosophy in the technological age.
The goal of Drink & Think is to explore and discover the boundaries of topics that continue to stump history’s greatest minds, while conversing casually over a beer with friends. Consider this Meetup a philosophical think tank, or a “drink tank” if you will.
This is an introductory level group, but advanced philosophers are also welcome. Optional sources will be provided for context.
Meetups rotate throughout various locations in the Bay Area, including San Francisco and Palo Alto. Read individual event descriptions for more details.
Cheers!
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Brains in a vatMitchell Park Library, Palo Alto, CA
Brains in a vat
Parking info: The parking lot may be busy; u can find street parking on Mayview Ave residential area instead.
Are we brains in a vat? Can the world be a simulation?
In this session we discuss Putnam’s philosophical argument that we are NOT brains in a vat.
Putnam shows that philosophy gives a conclusion for this question, rather than science.
A copy of the paper is here:
Brains in a Vat - Hilary Putnam.pdfIn the analysis of brains in a vat, Putnam also raises the following questions:
- What is a reference? Can “brain” refer to an object outside of this world.
- What criteria accounts for a legitimate reference?
- Turing test for reference. Can a computer or a machine be able to refer? If a chatbot can talk about apples that are indistinguishable from a human, then can the chatbot refer to apples?
- Can reference be a neural state of the brain?
- Can “Water is H2O” be false on a twin earth where the liquid covering the planet contains 3% of alcohol?
- During a criminal investigation, I as a witness said “the criminal wore blue shirt”, but after many other witnesses said that “the criminal wore green shirt”, I changed my mind and said it was indeed a green shirt. Was my mental state different before I changed my mind? Did I perceive a blue or green shirt?
- How can we refer to extraterrestrials? Are we directly referring to an entity that we never encountered? Or it is not a reference at all: extraterrestrials means a classification of objects that does not come from earth, i.e. if such an object shows up, we would classify it as extraterrestrials, but until then it is not a reference.
A preliminary conclusion from these analysis is that truth is framework dependent, i.e. “objects” do not exist independent of conceptual schemes. This is a rejection of metaphysical realism.
