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Is anyone actually a solipsist?
- Thread starter peter22
- Start date
Adding to what I said earlier, it is impossible to doubt the existence of everything outside the mind. If my mind was the only thing in existence, then there could be no new information added that I was previously unaware of. If I am not aware of it, it is not in my mind. Since there is new information that passes through my mind constantly, I must conclude that there is something that exists outside my mind. And again, if I cannot doubt that there exists even one other thing outside my mind, then I cannot be a solipsist.
EDIT: Someone is probably going to bring up the unconscious mind. I maintain that something which does not think cannot be a mind. Trying to shore up solipsism by changing the definition of the mind to include non-thinking entities is not an effective argument.
EDIT2: David Deutsch destroys solipsism more effectively and eloquently than I could.
EDIT: Someone is probably going to bring up the unconscious mind. I maintain that something which does not think cannot be a mind. Trying to shore up solipsism by changing the definition of the mind to include non-thinking entities is not an effective argument.
EDIT2: David Deutsch destroys solipsism more effectively and eloquently than I could.
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Not necessarily. Imagine if you really are a brain in a jar under the surface of the moon. If the illusion of your life is a computer program of incredible complexity, it can just change the program for any "new" experiences.
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S
Steezie
Guest
But if you have MILLIONS of other individuals stating that they exist, thats a mountain of circumstantial evidence (on top of MANY other things) to suggest the existence of outside forces. All that evidence, while circumstantial if you trust only your mind, does add up
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I wouldn't be a solipsist if I believed in moons outside my mind, brains outside my mind, or advanced computer systems outside my mind. All of those things would be real outside of my own thoughts, and I cannot believe in them to be a solipsist.
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You're not really getting it. You can't trust your senses or your experiences. It doesn't matter WHAT happens, the basic sceptical view is, "I might be being deceived therefore you and your 4.5 billion friends don't exist."
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Again, no. These are illustrative examples. Solipsism doesn't dictate that anything is as it is, it just claims that I cannot know anything beyond the existence of my own mind.
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funyun
aude sapere...sed praeterea, aude esse
I'm sure there are some solipsists out there. Personally I understand the epistemological quandary that leads to a solipsistic argument and so I'm sympathetic to the the argument itself. Although I don't agree with it ontologically speaking, I always defend the basic skeptical argument because it relates to very important epistemological truths like uncertainty and the a priori/a posteriori distinction.
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toirewadokodesuka
Well-Known Member
i think the theory that there are dimentions that exist but we cant sense, is grounds for thinking that the universe is somewhat of an illusion. im sure if i could sense everything, when i looked at the sky or any other material objects, i would be seeing something in a much different way. i dont think the universe doesnt exist, i think the universe is just blurry to us.
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