Solipsism

Solipsism, from Wikipedia:

Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self). 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 exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist. Although the number of individuals sincerely espousing solipsism has been small, it is not uncommon for one philosopher to accuse another's arguments of entailing solipsism as an unwanted consequence, in a kind of reductio ad absurdum. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has also served as a skeptical hypothesis.

Reading a little extract this week has got me thinking. Assuming the solipsistic position, that only your mind, and nothing but your mind, exists, then we're also saying that everything we're learning, our day-to-day "social experiences", the contents of every book in the "world", "knowledge" about facts, occurrences, happenings around the "world" - all these things come from nowhere else but your own mind.

I find this an extremely interesting idea, because it involves me concluding that whatever I had learnt about solipsism (be it from my reading, from Wikipedia, or hearing about it from friends), comes from no external source. If solipsism is true, then knowledge is generated in my mind for myself to learn, as though I don't know it and then am reading about it in order to learn more about it, when actually I had already known the knowledge (otherwise I wouldn't be able to generate it for myself to learn).

That also means that you, the reader, who is reading this blog, does not exist. You, who are reading words that I type, are simply a part of my mind, created by me, for me.

Look at it from your perspective. (I know that in saying this, I am rejecting solipsism, since there cannot be a "you", another mind, reading this page, but just for the sake of illustration...) The contents of this blog, the contents of today's newspaper, what your mother is saying to you, what your friend is texting you... where did all this come from? If no other mind exists, that must mean that all this "external" content really comes only from one place - your own mind. Think about how interesting that is! You're reading, "learning" about things which... you apparently already know, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to create it for yourself to read or learn, would you?

Well, just thought it might be interesting to share. For one, I'm not a big fan of solipsism. Should I subscribe to solipsism, then I probably wouldn't be writing this, since I believe that there is no one else who will be reading it. Perhaps I was bored and decided to colour my life a little bit. But I wouldn't be so sure.



It was Grandpa's birthday yesterday! I can't remember how old he is ): but we're going for dinner tonight at the $9 steak place, Katong Village. It's usually about $17 but there's a weekend promotion where the steak goes for only $9. It's quite good!