Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [solipsism]

The position that only one's own existence can be demonstrated to exist (and that everything and everyone else cannot.)

Solipsism is the belief that only the self can be proven to exist.

This can be taken into various schools of thought including metaphysics and epistemology.

Historically this can be linked to philosophers such as Bishop Berkeley and Decartes.

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What is the inverse of solipsism?

Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. Does there exist a term to define the concept that one only exists due to one's perception and interpretation by others' minds? In other words, one only finds existential…
sws
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Is it possible to refute subjective reality?

Subjective reality as explained here: Subjective Reality (SR), as I describe it, is the perspective that your true identity is the dreamer having the dream, so you are the conscious container in which the entire dream world takes place.  Your…
leo
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Does anyone have a good answer to or deconstruction of the 'problem of other minds'?

I'm absolutely obsessed with the problem. I've seen many people dismiss it, and I've seen many arguments against it, none of which seem to cut the logical mustard. The problem for me boils down to "world-having". If something shows up in my world, I…
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Why are the existence of obstacles to our will considered a counterargument to solipsism?

In another (unrelated) question, the topic of solipsism came up in the comments, as well as the counterargument that there exist obstacles to our will, things out of our control, and so reality must not be generated by our thoughts. I'm by no means…
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Why don't you (personally) worry about solipsism?

We can say as much as we like that solipsism is irrefutable, but isn't that a reason to worry? Personally, it scares me that I can be left alone in a meaningless world. If solipsism has passed you by, tell me why you are calm about it.
Lyna Harmony
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Unless you are an absolutist when it comes to knowledge, isn’t everyone a solipsist?

Solipsism (/ˈsɒlɪpsɪzəm/ ⓘ SOLL-ip-siz-əm; from Latin solus 'alone', and ipse 'self')[1] is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own…
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Can there be a subject without an object?

As far as I know about solipsism is that the solipsist I guess would be me, and I am the only mind that exists and everything I perceive from my senses and the experience of the world is solely a product of my mind. The subject is me, and the object…
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What is lost with solipsism (for the non-egocentric)?

I was thinking about the claim that other (future past etc. groups) people don't matter at all, and wondered in what way solipsism, which I think implies this ambivalence, might impoverish us, either the belief or it being a fact. Very clearly, the…
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Solipsism, Certainty, and Doubt

Given that solipsism implies epistemological certainty of one's world, because there is nothing more to know than that what a solipsist knows about the world (implying that the world and reality are the same for a solipsist per Wittgenstein), then…
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