Brueckner's Simple Argument Against Skepticism about The External World

Philosophical skepticism about the external world is a philosophical view that questions our knowledge of the propositions that are about the external world. Some versions of philosophical skepticism use skeptical hypothesis to prove that we can’t know anything about the external world. One of the most famous skeptical hypothesis is the brain in a vat hypothesis. Putnam is the first philosopher who has tried to show that accepting semantic externalism refutes this kind of skepticism. Semantic externalism is the view that the meaning of a term in our language, or the content of our psychological state, is at least partially determined by factors that are external to the speaker. Putnam's argument seems to be epistemically circular; so it cant show that we know that we are not brains in a vat. By introducing new externalist arguments, Brueckner has tried to solve this problem. The evaluation of Bruckner’s simple arguments in refuting the skepticism is the main purpose of this paper. Having analyzed these arguments, it has shown that these arguments can’t prove that we can have knowledge about the external world. But Brueckner’s compatibilist argument shows that we can have justified believes about the external world.