Brain in a vat test

[watershield]

That's not what they call it here but that is the original concept. Give it a try. Not a game per say, but a interesting view of your own perceptions.

www.philosophersnet.com/games/quiz.htm

OOps...wrong test....scroll down

[vermindaspirit]

Whooo, WS, that was a bit mental for 7.30 in the morning....Heres my results, most of them quess work ... ( I did this first on the AWA forum and just copied and pasted it here ;D)


Name Dates Works Miscellany Theories Quotations Places Q's asked Q's correct
verminda 4 tokens 3 tokens 4 tokens 3 tokens 3 tokens 1 tokens 85 asked 18 correct

Congratulations!

You have finished

Your correct answers to questions ratio was: 0.21.....

[watershield]

Some days I'm a bit dense
Right heading, wrong link(or at least posted that one early)

HERE'S THE RIGHT ONE:

www.philosophersnet.com/games/matrix_start.htm

[vermindaspirit]

watershield said:

Some days I'm a bit dense
Right heading, wrong link(or at least posted that one early)

HERE'S THE RIGHT ONE:

www.philosophersnet.com/games/matrix_start.htm

.... ..... ..... ;D

I will try that later then WS......

[vermindaspirit]

That was so cool, guys do this its fun....Heres mine... ;D

You selected the "heroic" response

Read on to see what this means…

In his 1986 book The View From Nowhere, the philosopher Thomas Nagel described a philosophical puzzle - the kind of puzzle that seems to make the existence of the Matrix possible - and three responses to it.

The puzzle is this: we see the world from a point of view, namely, the point of view of our own conscious selves. As babies, we only have a view of the world from this viewpoint. But as we grow older, we also have what Nagel calls the "view from nowhere". This is the idea of the world as objectively existing, independently of both our viewpoint or any other particular viewpoint. We consider ourselves to be a part of this world. Therefore we have a view of ourselves from the inside as perceivers of the world, but also of ourselves as members of the objective world.

Common-sense tells us that when we accumulate knowledge, this knowledge includes knowledge of the objective world. But Nagel sees a problem in the enterprise of accumulating such knowledge. Objective knowledge requires a neutral perspective. But we cannot occupy this neutral perspective. Therefore, objective knowledge seems unattainable.

What we try to do is give an account of the world that "includes an explanation of why it initially appears to us as it does". The problem here is that, while doing this, we always have to keep our subjective perspective, so there is always room for doubt that we are not getting the proper picture. "The most objective view we can achieve will have to rest on an unexamined subjective base."

The skeptical response to this is to accept that we just can’t have knowledge of the objective world. For all we know, we might live in the Matrix.

However, skepticism isn’t the only response to this. One alternative is a reductive response, which is anti-skeptical in nature. Nagel writes, "On a reductive view our beliefs are not about the world as it is in itself ... they are about the world as it appears to us." As what we commonly understand by objective knowledge is not possible, it is accepted that reality beyond our experience is either not possible or meaningless and so knowledge is understood as being confined to what is possible for us to experience.

The third possible response is the heroic one. This attempts somehow to bridge the gap between ourselves and objective knowledge. Part of the reason for calling this heroic is that the odds seemed stacked against its success.

Nagel also makes a distinction between realist and non-realist positions. The skeptical and heroic views are realist because both hold that there is a really existent outside world which we either can (heroic) or cannot (skeptical) comprehend. The reductive view on the other hand, sees this all as a red herring. It can only make sense to talk of how we see the world. The idea of an objectively existing world just doesn’t make any sense. However, Nagel believes that only realist response to the problem are credible, and wants to pursue a heroic one.


I read some very intreasting books on the Matrix last summer, i cant remember the author but one was called the read or blue pill, i will see if i can get the books of my friend again and post the authors if anyones intreasted in this type of thing.....