[Krimel} > Thoughts on TE1: > This thread was often hard to read because I had so many reservations about > the experiment. It started out as sci-fi but gravitated toward an ill > conceived understanding of the brain-in-a-vat scenario. Brain-in-a-vat is a > modern variant on Descartes' clever demons argument. It is the idea that our > experience is being manipulated by some external agency for purposes of its > own which may or not be in harmony with our own.
An ill conceived understanding of the brain-in-a-vat scenario, indeed.? Neither the Brain-in-a-vat nor Descartes's clever demons argument is a morality tale. Hi Craig, I never used the term BiaV, Ian introduced that angle. Thanks Ian! I love you, i hope you know vat!! Re. Descartes's clever demons argument is a morality tale. Well, Descartes calls is an Evil demon most deliberately, because he goes on to argue that God provided the criteria for clear and distinct thought. Demon = evil, dark, nasty, makes you think things you don't want to think (like voting Republican), a real bastard who lights up in restaurants where the NO SMOKING sign is Red?neon and three foot tall above his table. God = Goodness and light,?guarantees all ideas?clear and distinct, makes you think things you do want to think (like voting Democrat), one to lean over in a restaurant and offer you the condiments because he's observed them to have been omitted from your table, while simultaneously preventing the waiter from copping it by insisting that excellent person has been made to understand clearly and distinctly their redundant?status?with respect to?chef's?immaculately seasoned art. Craig: Their point is epistemological.? In each case it is an attempt to drive a wedge between our experience & reality. Craig s: Descartes' attempt to?establish certainty has a moral dimension in my view. A contemporary David may have jumped in and insisted it is immoral to even speculate Demons could do such a thing under God's caring auspices. In fact, come to think of it, he was run out of the country by Jesuit priests for questioning the authority of the Church by a contemporary David. squonk Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
