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E pistemology A thought-experiment imitating Descartes 's argument from dreaming . Suppose we remove a person's brain from his body and keep it alive in a vat, and then wire the vat to a computer that provides the normal stimuli. The result would be that this brain in a vat would have a mental life that merges perfectly with its past life so that it is not aware of what has happened. There is no basis for the brain to distinguish between its present situation and its previous situation. The conceptual possibility of this experiment leads to skepticism about the reliability of experience and empirical knowledge in our actual lives. Some philosophers, however, challenge the value of such “science fiction” examples in philosophy. “Suppose we (and all other sentient beings) are and always were ‘brains in a vat’. Then how does it come about that our word ‘vat’ refers to noumenal vats and not to vats in the image?” Putnam, Meaning and the Moral Sciences ... log in or subscribe to read full text