Posted: Nov 04, 2013 9:04 am
romansh wrote:SpeedOfSound wrote:
Given this level of conceptual construction, this bit about sense data and experience as central and containing, and given the level of the task, i.e. proving the fundamental nature of reality, there is no proof possible of solipsism. So if you can't prove it and you elect it as the one true way out of an infinite number of possible ways things can be what is the basis for the election? Can't be proof and can't be probability.
So given the constraints on proof that disproves it.
Not sure I understand here SoS
Here's a thought experiment though:
If I were to put a bullet through a solipsist's head (say Little Idiot's) and the universe continued afterwards, would that constitute a falsification that Little Idiot is the source of his solipsist universe?
The only target for such an experiment is ones self. If I ask the question 'am I the solipsistic mind?' only I can answer in the affirmative. But I can't tell anything by shooting myself. If I can imagine myself into non-existence by imagining a bullet penetrating my imagined brain then I will not exist to determine the outcome. If I should experience impending death but unknowingly switch to some other experience I could would not know I had ever attempted the experiment. I might maintain continuity and come to in a hospital bed having 'miraculously survived due to poor aim. If idealism of any flavour is true then experience can be pulled out of nowhere, which makes it un-testable. Shooting yourself in the head to test solipsism is a much use as kicking a rock to test Idealism.
shooting someone else is absolutely no use at all.
If you could kill all the other people you still wouldn't know if you were a physical being or a solipsistic mind or a character in a Jamest style idealism or an AI entity in a world simulation or any other metaphysical speculation.