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Solipsism (from the Latin ipse = "self" and solus = "alone") is the epistemological belief that one's self is the only thing that can be known with certainty and verified (sometimes called egoism). Solipsism is also commonly understood to encompass the metaphysical belief that only one's self exists, and that "existence" just means being a part of one's own mental states — all objects, people, etc, that one experiences are merely parts of one's own mind. Solipsism is first recorded with the presocratic sophist Gorgias (c. 483-375 BC) who is quoted by Sextus Empiricus as having stated:
- Nothing exists
- Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it, and
- Even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others
Solipsism is generally identified with statement 2 and 3 from Gorgias.
A thought-experiment related to solipsis, although in principle distinct, is the Brain in a Vat. The person performing the thought-experiment considers the possibility that they are trapped within some utterly unknowable reality, much like that illustrated in the movie "The Matrix". A mad scientist could be sending the same impulses to a brain in a vat that a brain understood to be in the "real world" could receive, thereby exactly replicating the world as one knows it. Yet, for the brain in the vat, that world would obviously not be real. This raises the possibility that everything one thinks or knows is illusion. Or at the least that one cannot know, with any certainty, whether one's brain is in the "real world" or in a vat receiving impulses that would create an equivalent consciousness.
Thought similar to solipsism is present in much of eastern philosophy. Taoism and several interpretations of Buddhism, especially Zen, teach that drawing a distinction between self and universe is nonsensical and arbitrary, and merely an artifact of language rather than an inherent reality. Giovanni Gentile postulated a form of solipsism with his own brand of Idealism, which maintained that one's dependent view of reality only existed in so far as it related to the world it created itself into.
Another variation is a sort of materialistic agnosticism, stating simply that nothing outside of one's own thoughts can be absolutely proven to exist; it may all simply be the illusion/imagination/whatever of the thinker.
Objections
The classic objection to solipsism is that people die. However, the objector has not died, and therefore has not disproved it. This objection is also vulnerable to the criticism that it is impossible to know whether the mind lives on after death or not; hence, the theory is not disproven, because someone could exist even after death. Death can also be seen as a figment of the imagination - that person may not have died at all.
A further objection is that life causes pain. Why would we create pain for ourselves? One response to this is that there may be some reason which we have decided to forget on purpose, such as the law of Karma, or a desire not to be bored. Another response is that the category of 'pain' is a conditioned perception originating from socio-cultural human value systems which are not necessarily universally valid. A solipsistic value system may not recognise pain, or the alleged fact of personal death, as real.
Another objection is that the practical solipsist needs a language to formulate his thoughts about solipsism. Language is an essential tool to communicate with other minds. Why does a solipsist universe need a language? Possible responses are similar to the last objection; that is, to keep from becoming bored, perhaps the solipsist imagines "other" minds, which would actually be only elements of his own mind, and which he has chosen to forget control of for the time being, inventing a language so as to interact with these more isolated segments of his mind.
Nearly all objections can be dispensed with by an appeal to the solipsist's free will.
Furthermore, it can be objected that, as a philosophical category of analysis, the viewpoint of the solipsist is entirely empty and without content. That is, other than coloring the world with a shimmer of illusion, with or without the solipsism, the world would remain absolutely the same--so where do we go from there? Viewed in this way, the solipsist seems only to have found an easy way out of the more difficult task of a critical analysis of what is real and what isn't, and what this 'reality' means.
Truism
The solipsist's universe may be divided into two parts: that part controlled by their conscious mind, and the part controlled by their unconscious. They will find that the unconscious part of their universe behaves with the same complexity as it would if it were external; i.e., not part of their self at all (realism). The distinction between the realist universe and the unconscious universe collapses when one notes that external and unconscious are simply two different words used to describe the same events occurring outside of conscious control. This leads to the conclusion that the unconscious is, for all practical purposes, someone else.
Thus, considering the external universe to actually be one's unconscious mind may be treated linguistically as a semantic distinction. It makes little difference whether one claims their body and the external universe compose all of reality, or claims their conscious mind and their unconscious mind comprise their self as a whole. The claim that "only" oneself exists is a truism; "oneself" is the entire universe.
Links
- Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds
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