Metaphysical solipsism
Encyclopedia
Metaphysical solipsism is the variety of idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...

 which is based on the argument that no reality exists other than one's own mind or mental states, and that the individual mind is the whole of reality and the external world has no independent existence. It is expressed by the assertion "I myself only exist", in other words, no reality exists other than one's own mind.

Arguments in favour of Solipsism

The argument in favor of Solipsism:

(a) The only thing one has direct access to is the contents of one's own mind (one's mental states). What one knows most certainly are one's mental states - one's thoughts, experiences, emotions, and so on.

(b) Just because one sees an object does not mean that the object exists. One could be dreaming or hallucinating. There is no direct conceptual or logically necessary link between the mental and the physical.

(c) The experiences of a given person are necessarily private to that person. The contents of one's mind is the only things one has direct access to. One cannot get ‘outside’ of one's mind to encounter any other objects including other persons. Other minds are even more removed.

The basic form of the argument:
  • My mental states are the only things I have access to.
  • I cannot conclude the existence of anything outside of my mental states.
    • Therefore only my mental states exist.

Similar philosophy is found in Hindu religion, namely drishti-srishti-vada.
In teachings of Ramana Maharshi there are too cues on solipsism:

"Jiva is called so because he sees the world. A dreamer sees many jivas in a dream, but all of them are not real. The dreamer alone exists and he sees all. So it is with the individual and the world. There is the creed of only one Self, which is also called the creed of only one jiva. It says that the jiva is the only one who sees the whole world and the jivas therein."

Arguments against Solipsism

Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

 wrote:
"The most logically consistent theories are unbelievable and the most believable theories are inconsistent." (Mysticism & Logic by Bertrand Russell)

One reason for the lack of support of this philosophical position is how strange it would be for a solipsist to preach solipsism - as if to convince everyone around them that they are purely a figment of the author's own imagination. The very idea of communicating philosophical ideas would be arbitrary to a true solipsist, as according to them, there is no other mind with whom they would communicate their beliefs.

Russell commented, on the same theme:


"As against solipsism it is to be said, in the first place,
that it is psychologically impossible to believe, and is
rejected in fact even by those who mean to accept it. I once
received a letter from an eminent logician, Mrs. Christine Ladd-Franklin
Christine Ladd-Franklin
Christine Ladd-Franklin was the first American woman psychologist, logician, and mathematician.-Early Life and Early Education:...

,
saying that she was a solipsist, and was
surprised that there were no others. Coming from a logician and a solipsist, her surprise surprised me." (Russell, p. 180).

See also

  • Actual idealism
    Actual Idealism
    Actual Idealism was a form of idealism, developed by Giovanni Gentile, that grew into a 'grounded' idealism, contrasting the Transcendental Idealism of Immanuel Kant, and the Absolute idealism of G. W. F. Hegel...

  • Cartesian skepticism
  • Methodological solipsism
    Methodological solipsism
    In epistemology and the philosophy of mind, methodological solipsism has at least two distinct definitions:# Methodological solipsism is the epistemological thesis that the individual self and its states are the sole possible or proper starting point for philosophical construction...

  • Solipsism
    Solipsism
    Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...

  • Brain in a vat
    Brain in a vat
    In philosophy, the brain in a vat is an element used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning...

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