Solipsism is an idea that you can never be sure of anything existing other than your own experiences. One thing you can be sure of without a doubt is what you are experiencing right now, but does anything exist beyond your experience? It’s really a frustrating idea if one can wrap their head around it and you can never argue against it, because whatever your argument is, it can only come out of your experience, and that is the whole issue, your experiences can only prove themselves and nothing else.
Few years back I came across theory of holographic Universe and from there I started to jump into the abyss of solipsism, but back then I didn’t know that my realizations already have a name in the philosophy.
The idea of solipsism first came into general public through the works of Gorgias, a Greek philosopher during his lifetime of 483 to 375 BC. As the time passed the tree of solipsism grew and now it has many branches. There are so many different kinds of solipsism today from one that says that if something is not observed it does not exist to one that says we are in a computer simulation, but one thing that seems constant in all these different kinds is that we can never be certain of anything existing other than us, in other words we can never be certain that anything other than us is REAL.
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I do believe that “you” are reading this, is real, that you do exist, other than me, you don’t need my observation to exist, and you have an objective existence. How do I know that? Well, that’s the thing, I don’t, and I can’t. That’s why I said “believe” and the best you can do is believe too, however, I don’t think reality has an objective existence even if you exist.
Or I should say reality don’t have any existence outside of your and my subjective perception. Let’s take an example, what does a wall have of its own that you haven’t given it? Its appearance is a result of your perception, if you touch it, what you feel will be your own sensation produced in your mind and brain, if you push it the pressure and strain is again your own sensations and so on.
If you take everything of yours from the wall, what is a wall left with? …. Nothing. Even what we call outside observations like light and wavelengths of colors are only our own subjective perceptions that we assume are outside of us. What is red color without perception or observation? Red color and even its wavelength requires an observer to exist, there is no red color in universe as universe has no color just like universe have no sounds or shapes for that matter.
Outside of you.
If you want to believe that something exists other than you, your best bet is other minds. Minds like yours or more accurately minds like you, not exactly like you but relative, some more than others. These minds have laws or patters just like the laws and patterns of physics. Actually, all the laws and patterns of physics are the laws and patterns of mind itself. This is why our world can function and is not a complete chaos. Because of these patterns things and universe appears to have a rigid objective existence and this is the reason everything seems so real, real other than us.
If anything exists for sure it has to be our minds and experiences, outside of that if one can call it outside there is just oblivion and it will remain so.
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