Solipsism: history, authors and types

He solipsism Is the metaphysical and epistemological position that posits that the mind or the own conscience is the unique thing that can be verified as existing and that the knowledge of anything outside the mind can not be justified.

It is a skeptical hypothesis and leads to the belief that all reality and the outside world and other people are mere representations of the individual self, without its own independent existence, and that in reality do not even exist. It is not, however, the same as skepticism (the epistemological position that one should refrain even from making truth claims).

Solipsism

Solipsism is, then, a pure variety of idealism (more specifically subjectivism), and opposes such concepts as materialism, physicalism and objectivism, which maintain that the only thing that can truly be proved is matter. The central assertion of solipsism lies in the lack of solid proof of the existence of the external world, and strong solipsism (as opposed to weak solipsism) asserts that such a proof can not be made.

It is often considered a bankrupt philosophy, or at best odd and unlikely. Critics have argued that the very idea of ​​communicating philosophical ideas would be completely useless to a true solipsist, since, according to them, there is no other mind with which to communicate their beliefs.

Philosophical definition of solipsism

Solipsism (from the Latin"solus ipse"or"I only exist") is the doctrine that only oneself exists. This formulation embraces two doctrines, each of which has been called solipsism, namely: 1) that one is the only one, the only center of consciousness and, more radically, 2) that nothing exists apart from one's own mind and The mental states. These are not always distinguished from the corresponding epistemic forms: for all we know, (1) or (2) could be true.

A more recent coinage is that of"methodological solipsism,"which has a completely different meaning and is based on the belief that the content of an individual's thoughts is totally determined by the facts about them, and is independent of the facts about its environment.

History of solipsism

Positions somewhat similar to solipsism are present in much of Eastern philosophy, particularly in Taoism, various interpretations of Buddhism (especially Zen) and some Hindu models of reality. L

The origins of solipsism in Western philosophy lie in the Greek Pre-Socratic Sophist Gorgias who asserted that: (1) nothing exists; 2) even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; And 3) even if you could know something about it, knowledge about it can not be communicated to others.

Although to a certain extent it is only an ironic refutation and parody of the position of Parmenides and the Eleatic philosophers (that every being is one), Gorgias nevertheless captured at least the spirit of solipsism.

Descartes and Solipsism

Solipsism is also at the heart of Descartes' conception that the individual understands all psychological concepts (thought, disposition, perception, etc.) by analogy with his own mental states (ie by abstraction from inner experience).

Descartes's method of Cartesian skepticism led him to doubt the existence of the world he perceived, and in his celebrated formulation"Cogito Ergo Sum"("I think, therefore I am") retired to the only thing he could not doubt, his own self aware.

Descartes published in 1641 his"Meditations on the First Philosophy", in which he defended his program of doubt showing that such a company would not necessarily be in conflict with the Catholic teachings.

The Meditations, became a classic of all time. In a sense, it is the beginning of modern philosophy. And its center is the definition of the self as the only thing in the world that can not be doubted in any way.

The book begins with Descartes's description of his intention, that is, to rid his mind of all dubious and uncertain opinions, in order to have a solid foundation for his future scientific research:

"I have not heard until now, that from my earliest years I have received many false opinions as true and that what I have based on such unstable principles could only be very dubious and uncertain. And since then I have realized that I would have to seriously begin again to get rid of all the opinions I have previously received in my credibility, and start again from the foundations if I wanted to establish something firm and constant in the sciences. ... So today, very timely for this plan, I have freed my mind of all kinds of care - fortunately feeling unperturbed by any passion, and having found a safe rest in peaceful solitude. I will apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my old opinions."

As can be seen from these introductory remarks, Descartes sets out his program of radical doubt as a decidedly solitary undertaking. He is pursuing his philosophical work in deliberate isolation - away from other people, and protected from riots that usually come with practical concerns and emotional involvement. At the beginning of his Discourse on Method, he had been equally concerned with protecting himself from internal and external disturbances.

Descartes begins his program of radical doubt in a relatively ordinary way, in a way that any critical scholar would go about the doubt: He suspends his earlier belief in the teachings of his academic professors.

This, however, would not have been anything new or particularly radical since a good part of academic work at all times consists in doing just that. The philosophically radical part of his program came into force when Descartes questioned something ordinarily taken for granted: the testimony of the senses.

In his words: "All that I have received so far as the truest and safest I have are the senses. Now, I have sometimes found that these senses are misleading, and it is advisable not to entirely trust those who have deceived us once."

To effectively cast doubt on the truth of all sensory perception, Descartes has to come up with a better argument. For this purpose he designs his famous argument about sleep

"How many times has it been since I dreamed at night that I was by the fire, although I was completely naked in my bed! ... It reminds me of being deceived by similar illusions while sleeping, and, persisting in this thought, I see so clearly that there is no sure index by which the wake can be clearly distinguished from the dream, that I am astonished and my astonishment is such that it is Almost able to persuade me that I'm dreaming right now.

While dreaming, in other words, one often has the impression that what one is dreaming of is real. When I dream that I am sitting in front of the fireplace, then I take it for granted that I am sitting in front of the fireplace, although I am lying in bed. Normally I will not find my mistake until I wake up. But if I can be so wrong in the dreams I've had in the past, how can I be sure that I'm not dreaming right now?

Obviously I think I'm sitting here, writing these words; But how can I prove that I will not wake up in a while and see that this, too, has been just a dream? How can I distinguish waking experiences from sleep experiences?"

George Berkeley and Solipsism

The idealist philosopher George Berkeley argued that physical objects do not exist independently of the mind that perceives them, and that an element really exists only while observing (otherwise not only senseless, but simply does not exist).

Berkeley, however, further argued that there must also be a Mind (or God) that encompasses everything, so his position is not pure Solipsism. According to Berkeley, there is no such entity as a physical world, or matter, in the sense of an independently existing object. Rather, all that we ordinarily call physical objects are actually collections of ideas in the mind.

The appearances that we experience are the same objects and the appearances are sensations or perceptions of a thinking being. His most famous saying is 'esse est percipi' - 'to be is to be perceived'. According to the thesis of"esse es percipi", all the things that surround us are nothing more than our ideas. Sensitive things have no other existence than their being perceived by us.

This also applies to human bodies. When we see our bodies or move our limbs, we only perceive certain sensations in our consciousness. Using a series of arguments, often called by the philosophers as the"veil of perception,"Berkeley argued that since we never perceive anything called"matter"but only ideas, the view that there is a material substance behind and supports These perceptions are unsustainable.

For Berkeley, everything depended on the mind: if one can not have an image of something in the mind, then it ceases to exist, hence his thesis"to be is to be perceived." Berkeley's response to those who argued that if there was no material substrate behind our ideas, how things persist when no one perceives them, was to argue that all our perceptions are ideas produced for us by God.

As he says:

"Whatever power I may have over my own thoughts, I find that ideas really perceived by sense have no dependence similar to my will. When I open my eyes in broad daylight, it is not for me to be able to choose whether or not I shall see, or to determine what particular objects will appear before me; And so also in the ear and other senses; The ideas imprinted on them are not creatures of my will. There is therefore some other Will or Spirit that produces them."

Therefore, in arguing that things exist through the perception of God, and not simply through one's individual perception, it seems that Berkeley succeeds in his attempt to avoid accusations of solipsism.

However, because his thinking falls into the category of what might be called divine solipsism: there is nothing but God himself in the Berkeley universe, it seems that the Irish bishop's esteemed attempt to reject such a label may not have had as much Success as he would have wished.

Ultimately, in presenting a concept of God in this way, Berkeley is in fact, creating within his own mind the idea of ​​a God in whose mind all things exist as ideas and God as solipsist.

On the other hand, because his concept of God is an idea formed within his own mind (actually making him the God of God), and because, by his own admission, he agrees that all things are merely ideas that arise within The mind of the individual, we can conclude that Berkeley was indeed a solipsist.

Types of solipsism

  • Metaphysical solipsism is a kind of idealism that holds that the individual self of a person is all reality and that the external world and other persons are representations of that self and have no independent existence.
  • Epistemological solipsism is a kind of idealism according to which only the directly accessible mental contents of an individual can be known. The existence of an external world is considered as an insoluble matter or an unnecessary, rather than a false, hypothesis.
  • Methodological solipsism is the epistemological thesis that the individual self and its mental states are the only starting point possible or appropriate for the philosophical construction. Therefore, all other truths must be based on indisputable facts about the consciousness of an individual, and beliefs about someone, for example, water has nothing to do with the substance of water in the outside world, but is determined internally.

References

  1. Thornton, S. (1995). Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds. 24-1-2017, from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Website: iep.utm.edu.
  2. Mastin, L. (2008). Solipsism. 24-1-2017, from.philosophybasics.com Website: philosophybasics.com.
  3. Cazasola, W. (1999). The problem of solipsism. 24-1-2017, of Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades Web site: circulodecartago.org.
  4. Bramann, J.K. (2004). Descartes: The Solitary Self. 24-1-2017, from The Educating Rita Workbook Website: facultyfiles.frostburg.edu.
  5. Klempner, G. (2012). Berkeley as solipsist. 24-1-2017, from WordPress Web site: askaphilosopher.wordpress.com.


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