rationalskepticism.org

Spearthrower wrote:For me, solipsism fails at a most banal level - by whatever 'logic' one arrives at agreeing with the proposition that there is no reason to believe other people are other minds, one necessarily must then also include the possibility that one's own mind, or sense of mind, could just as well be a figment of the One True Mind's imagination.

All the supposed justifications of oneself thinking therefore am-ing amount to nothing more than special pleading because any contention you could make establishing credentials of your own mind's certain existence could easily be waved away as delusions, hallucinations, just programed into the system to induce into you the certainty that you are aware of your mind when it is nothing more than a persistent illusion.

If we are obligated to buy into all this naive bullshit about how we can't be certain of anything at all ever so everything's up for grabs - then FW is also obliged to operate under those same inept conditions. Solipsism is self-defeating precisely because it insists on ignoring that other minds apparently experience the same convictions, and never addresses how we're supposed to validate the idea that they could all be deluded while mine's automatically valid.

It's all just so obviously similar to all the other special sauce humans think of themselves; centre of creation, centre of the heavens, of the universe, of the solar system, on and on and on - always humans, and this just takes it the step further by it being 'only me'.

FW paints it a grand torturous narrative. To me it looks banal, hackneyed, and worst of all - it's motivated reasoning employed to self-aggrandize. It's wanking, basically. But it's in public... yuk.

When you tear down the labels and rationalizations behind everything you'll find there is no longer any point of reference, and no coherency. You are left with nothing but the sensation of your own isolated perception, with no clear source or meaning in sight.

Solipsism states that nothing exists beyond one's own perception.

I suppose sensation is being as opposed to not being. Without sensation, there is nothing, which is inconceivable to the conscious mind. Stop moving completely for a moment, stop thinking, do not attempt to rationalize anything and just be still. Your state of being at that time will be the only thing in existence from your perspective, to assume that anything else is existing will require faith. I guess I can't give you a concrete answer because you are still presupposing that you are experiencing a "thing." Why does this have to be so? When you tear down the labels and rationalizations behind everything you'll find there is no longer any point of reference, and no coherency. You are left with nothing but the sensation of your own isolated perception, with no clear source or meaning in sight.