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    Made withinDC&Austin
    The proposition that one has hands cannot itself serve as... — Carmelics
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    321,452
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    Home/Skepticism
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The proposition that one has hands cannot itself serve as evidence for the proposition that one is not a handless brain in a vat

    Skepticism
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's On Certainty shows that propositions like 'I have hands' function as hinge propositions, not empirical evidence — they are preconditions for inquiry, not data within it.
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    • 2.Hinge propositions cannot transmit justification to what they presuppose because their epistemic role is foundational rather than inferential, making evidential transmission structurally impossible.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wright's distinction between entitlement and evidence shows that warrant for 'I have hands' is itself parasitic on prior entitlement to trust one's perceptual faculties, which the skeptical hypothesis directly undermines.
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    • 2.Any proposition whose warrant presupposes the falsity of hypothesis H cannot serve as independent evidence against H, since the evidential chain is viciously circular rather than genuinely supportive.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.For external world propositions to serve as evidence against skeptical hypotheses, Closure and Transmission principles would need to coincide — i.e., evidence for p would need to be evidence for every q entailed by p
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    • 2.Closure principles can hold without Transmission: one may need antecedent justification for q in order to be justified in believing p that entails q
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    • 3.The direction of evidential dependence between external world propositions and the negation of skeptical hypotheses runs from the negation of skeptical hypotheses to external world propositions, not the reverse
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    Skepticism

    Related

    Any proposition whose warrant presupposes the falsity of hypothesis H cannot ser...Closure principles can hold without Transmission: one may need antecedent justif...For external world propositions to serve as evidence against skeptical hypothese...Hinge propositions cannot transmit justification to what they presuppose because...
    +3 moreShow less
    The direction of evidential dependence between external world propositions and t...Wittgenstein's On Certainty shows that propositions like 'I have hands' function...Wright's distinction between entitlement and evidence shows that warrant for 'I ...

    Similar

    You cannot discriminate between actually having hands and being a hand...86%Being a brain-in-a-vat is not a relevant alternative to having hands.85%You know that you have hands only if you can discriminate between actu...85%You do know that you have hands, despite being unable to discriminate ...83%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: skepticism
    View source passageHide passage
    The Cartesian skeptic can nevertheless raise an uncomfortable question at this point: what is this alleged evidence in favor of the proposition that we are not in a skeptical scenario? One tempting answer is that the evidence in question consists precisely of those external world propositions which are the target of the Cartesian argument. I know that I have hands, and, according to this view, that very proposition is my evidence for the proposition that I am not a handless brain in a vat. But r
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit