Solipsism (/ˈsɒlɪpsɪzəm/ ⓘ SOLL-ip-siz-əm; from Latin solus ‘alone’ and ipse ‘self’)[1] is the philosophical idea that only one’s mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism 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. Now though I’m not a follower of this philosophy I find it intriguing as I think it comes from an interesting place of evolution. What are your takes?
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Perhaps it is true that my mind is the only thing that exists, but Occam’s Razor suggests otherwise.
Also, even if my mind is the only thing that exists, living my life and acting like nothing else is real would probably cause me to end up in a mental institution or prison, so solipsism doesn’t seem like it’s practical, useful, or convienient.
Thinking about solipsism has made me wonder if sociopaths feel this way about the Universe because of the faulty wiring in their brains.
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That sounds like someone would say if they were having a alien abduction.
I thought about it before but dont have a take on it.
It cant really be proven false.
Patrick hocksetter from the book IT by Stephen King, i think it states that he had this philosophy combined with being what the book stated as being a sociopath or maybe it was psychopath.
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Sociopathy is generally framed as a deficit of empathy, caused by insufficient, absent or malfunctioning mirror neurons – the brain’s way of enabling us to imagine how others feel or experience things (as well as imagining how our future selves might feel when experiencing the consequences of present actions – the basis for delayed gratifications of various kinds). Because sociopaths seem not to notice or care how others feel, AND tend to have impulse control problems.
But this deficit would be one way that could lead to being unable to relate to anything but one’s own mind or inner experiences I suppose. It is a different angle to come from to understand sociopathy that I hadn’t considered. I still think a deficit of empathy has more expressive power as a cause, but solipsism could well be the inner experience of someone who has little to no perception of anything outside the mind, and due to no empathy, has little emotional experience of the outside world.
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