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General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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Solipsism
    #9034360 -

Solipsism is the belief that the only thing that exists is one's own consciousness, and the rest of reality is simply a projection. 

I once wrestled with this during a period of existential crisis and bad psychological health.  It was truly scary.  I eventually eased my anxiety of not-truly knowing by giving up the worry and getting a decent answer by Mortimer J. Adler in a book of called The 10 Philosophical Mistakes.

I create this thread so that we can all wrestle with this concept and see what other conclusions you guys may have come up with. 

The implications of this "reality" would be incredible.  Nobody else is truly real.  There are no consequences to selfishness, unless you create your own negative reality.  "But what about all the laws of physics and things that I don't want happening that are happening?"  The subconscious has a lot of info in it!  Who knows what you are creating!  Think of Tom Cruise in "Vanilla Sky"!

How can one truly know that solipsism is not what is occurring?

To me, this is a matter of epistemology, the study of the ways of knowing and the validity of these ways.


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Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034376 -

Quote:
How can one truly know that solipsism is not what is occurring?


I guess you can't truly know that, and I don't really think it would matter. I very much prefer to just try and make the best of whatever that might be. :smile:


--------------------
:bunny::bunnyhug:
All this time I've loved you
And never known your face
All this time I've missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs
:bunnyhug: :yinyang2:

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034378 -

If my subconscious is the thing creating reality around me, and I have no conscious part in it, then it and the situations and people it creates are not really me, IMO.  So it doesn't matter.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034380 -

Solipsism is the scariest thing I've ever thought about.

Is all this world crisis malarkey just my own subjective subconscious projections?  And if this is true, wow, I'm fucked up!!


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Every mistake, intentional or otherwise, in the above post, is the fault of the reader.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034391 -

Philosophy is unlike most other sciences in that you have to try and discover something from the inside out.  You can't study your mind from outside of your mind, and thusly theories like solipsism stick around, haunting our consciences and poking holes in our certainties.

There's not a lot to say about it I guess.

Then again, you could write volumes and volumes and volumes...


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One step at a time.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: Sleepwalker]
    #9034412 -

Oweyervishice said:
If my subconscious is the thing creating reality around me, and I have no conscious part in it, then it and the situations and people it creates are not really me, IMO.  So it doesn't matter.


Good point. 

In the solipsism example, I dig it 100%.  But even then it becomes a matter of self-awareness and self-responsibility.  Not knowing that you are in a prison keeps you from ever being able to escape it. 

I think we definitely do filter objective reality and project upon it as well.  Realizing this helps us create a happier reality.  But imagine the danger of this ability if one did think that solipsism was the case.  I wonder how many serial killers or mass murderers were simply reality-testing and finding out the truth of solipsism or not, or just criminals in general.

But the separation between conscious and subconscious-as-other... I'm thinking about that in practical life now, not just in the solipsism instance.  I think it's dis-empowering.  It's like saying that one is possessed by a demon.  Could be dangerous.


--------------------
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034429 -

Or is it you that's possessing the demon?

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Re: Solipsism [Re: Echo7]
    #9034443 -

EchoEclipse71 said:
Philosophy is unlike most other sciences in that you have to try and discover something from the inside out.  You can't study your mind from outside of your mind, and thusly theories like solipsism stick around, haunting our consciences and poking holes in our certainties.

There's not a lot to say about it I guess.

Then again, you could write volumes and volumes and volumes...


Your signature is awesome.  "I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map..."  That song is the bomb.

Yeah, that's the game I was playing.  I was thinking volumes and volumes.  Then the other option finally seemed better, which was "forget about it."  Forgetting the question made me forget to seek an answer, which dropped a lot of my anxieties.  I've read that that is one technique towards enlightenment: Forget the unresolvable questions.  Who knows. :shrug:

Adler's answer was that one's mind does not directly perceive objective reality, because there is an in-between step:  Mind --> Senses/Cognition --> Object
He's saying that the mind does not create objects of perception, because then we are not perceiving them.  Our senses and mind need something to base their perception off of, thus an object of perception exists, and solipsism falls apart. 

I'm not sure if I fully accept it, but at the time of my illness, I accepted it.  I wonder now if I truly believed it or just accepted it knowing that if I didn't, I'd might not ever get my shit together. :lol:


--------------------
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9034769 -

The golden rule remains the same whether you're solipsistic or not.

In practice, solipsism is equivalent to just about any other belief about reality. If God/other beings created you, everyone else created is also you; if the big bang created you, everyone else created is also you; if you're completely selfless, everyone else is you; it all amounts to the same thing in essence.


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No debe haber separación, no puede haber definición.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: zannennagara]
    #9034801 -

zannennagara said:
The golden rule remains the same whether you're solipsistic or not.

In practice, solipsism is equivalent to just about any other belief about reality. If God/other beings created you, everyone else created is also you; if the big bang created you, everyone else created is also you; if you're completely selfless, everyone else is you; it all amounts to the same thing in essence.


Whether or not this is correct, it is still important to consider the methodology.  You have arrived at that conclusion, but I feel it is equally important (at least with matters such as this) to consider not only the destination but the route taken.  Psychology is more "why?" than anything else.


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One step at a time.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: Echo7]
    #9034928 -

I think Pascal's wager may be applied to the question: "How can one truly know that solipsism is not what is occurring?" Would the consequences be greater in a highly personal universe, or an infinite one. I would rather asses my risk respecting that a false positive in this situation is better than a false negative. IMO


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"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins

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Re: Solipsism [Re: wyldeman007]
    #9035063 -

All I know is that if one more poster pisses me off, I am going to make you ALL disappear!


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Re: Solipsism [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #9035229 -

The only thing you can ever know is Yourself, the rest is navigation. This is simultaneously knowing that there is Nothing.

Solipsism is just a bad understanding of godhood.


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Wherever the hero may wander, whatever he may do, he is ever in the presence of his own essence — for he has the perfected eye to see. There is no separateness. Thus, just as the way of social participation may lead in the end to a realization of the All in the individual, so that of exile brings the hero to the Self in all.

joseph campbell


For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

jesus

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Re: Solipsism [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #9035393 -

OrgoneConclusion said:
All I know is that if one more poster pisses me off, I am going to make you ALL disappear!


We all can utilise this power.

*cough*Ignore user*cough* :hehehe:


--------------------
Goodbye Shroomery.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #9035405 -

For me the real bind is not in the existence of reality separate from myself, but objective knowledge of said reality, and our inadequate attempts of conveying our own perceived reality to others.

  1. Nothing exists;
  2. Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and
  3. Even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others.


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Goodbye Shroomery.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: Penguarky Tunguin]
    #9035444 -

Penguarky Tunguin said:
Solipsism is the scariest thing I've ever thought about.

Is all this world crisis malarkey just my own subjective subconscious projections?  And if this is true, wow, I'm fucked up!!


Why do you find solipsism so depressing?

Embrace the liberation that everything is merely a construct of your mind--for this gives you the power to gratify all desires.


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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: deCypher]
    #9035448 -

Unless you like to play tricks to yourself :wink:


--------------------
:bunny::bunnyhug:
All this time I've loved you
And never known your face
All this time I've missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs
:bunnyhug: :yinyang2:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Solipsism [Re: MushroomTrip]
    #9038051 -

While it is possible that all external reality is a construct, it wouldn't do me any good to say with any certain 'faith' that it's true, so it's best not to worry about questions I will likely never find the answers to.

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Re: Solipsism [Re: MushroomTrip]
    #9038386 -

MushroomTrip said:
Quote:
How can one truly know that solipsism is not what is occurring?


I guess you can't truly know that, and I don't really think it would matter. I very much prefer to just try and make the best of whatever that might be. :smile:


Way to go.:thumbup:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Solipsism [Re: deCypher]
    #9038418 -

The Cypher said:
Penguarky Tunguin said:
Solipsism is the scariest thing I've ever thought about.

Is all this world crisis malarkey just my own subjective subconscious projections?  And if this is true, wow, I'm fucked up!!


Why do you find solipsism so depressing?

Embrace the liberation that everything is merely a construct of your mind--for this gives you the power to gratify all desires.


I said scary, not depressing.  Sometimes I like being scared.


--------------------
Every mistake, intentional or otherwise, in the above post, is the fault of the reader.

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