Philosophy 1301

Watch the following required video, which uses The Matrix to explain the problem of how we can, or cannot, prove that we are NOT brains in vats, but that we really are experiencing an external world that is just as it appears to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKrmw906TM

question 

Prompt: Is there any way to refute skeptical arguments like the brain in a vat (BIV) argument (i.e. that while it seems to us that we are walking around in the world normally, that in reality we are just brains in vats, connected to a vast computer inputting all our experiences)? How can we know that the external world really is as it seems to be to us through the senses?

Please write a minimum 200 word response to the prompt; and then write a 100 word response to one of your fellow students' posts.