How The Brain In The Vat Theory Is Not Justified For Human Existence And External Reality
The brain in the vat theory holds great pressure on those questioning one’s true reality. It is not possible for humans to be envatted by a simple force with different events and experiences shaping one’s character. If humans were controlled by a supercomputer, everyone would have qualitative identical thoughts which contradicts the ideal sense of uniqueness taught in society today. The brain in the vat theory controls how a person lives through a computer sending the right impulses, but this is not the case as humans have free will and behave at their own discretion. Society has transformed drastically throughout centuries, so it is invalid to say that humans are living in a simulation as life takes many turns. The brain in the vat theory allows others to have a different take on one’s reality, further proving that a response by a set of individuals will have variation- making a simulation impossible to control.
In this day and age, people are encouraged to be their authentic selves by living a positive lifestyle. If humanity was controlled by a supercomputer, people would handle situations all in the same pattern. Humans would have the same beliefs and customs, as well as expressing and thinking like each other. Fortunately, the world is not the same because it is filled with hundreds of cultures and languages that makes human life diverse. According to an American philosophy professor from Southern Connecticut State University, Lance P. Hickey, he mentions in his article, The Brain in a Vat Argument, “it is physically impossible for a brain in a vat to replicate the qualitative phenomenology of a non-envatted human being (Hickey, “The Brain in a Vat Argument).” This means that a person who is envatted is not living a human life as a non-envatted human being would. According to Plato’s traditionalist ‘inner self’ view, he mentions one of three rational elements, which includes one’s pursuit of common good. The common good comes from reason and desire, where envatted human beings are not capable to behave the way they want to because they cannot think for themselves. Those who are non- envatted, fulfil this element with freedom and regulated conscience. Envatted and non-evatted human beings are different in the way they think and function, which affects how one chooses to interact amongst others.
Human beings have the freedom to carry their own set of values and characteristics that is meaningful to them. Every person in this world have the ability to choose between two things that gives them the appearance of free will, but it is through good conscience and reasoning to make choices that will either benefit or harm themselves and others. According to the Behaviorist view on mind body relation, “a person’s mental activity is expressed through people’s behaviors” (Sergi, “Mind Body Relation”). “Human actions are those actions that result from the rational capacities of humans, we then see that the possibility of free action depends on the possibility of free will. This proves that humans are capable of making their own choices with the assumption that there may or may not be external pressures influencing their behaviors. A person’s continuous actions in everyday life is solely influenced by their own thinking which plays a role on how different events one may experience in one’s life are inevitable.
