What is solipsism? I have no clue.?

Question

Teach me please, I'm all ears. Explain it so I can understand.

Answer 1

It is a philosophy based on the premise that nothing exists except minds and their perceptions or ideas.

A person experiences material things but their existence is not independent of the perceiving mind.  The reality of the outside world is

dependent on a knower. The 18th Century philosopher Berkeley said,

Esse est percipi, to be is to be perceived.

Solipsists deny the human mind has any valid ground for believing in the existence of anything but itself. The British idealist F.H. Bradley, in Appearance and Reality (1897), wrote:

“I cannot transcend experience, and experience is my experience. From this it follows that nothing beyond myself exists; for what is experience is its (the self ’s) states.”

Answer 2

It is the pseudo-philosophical idea that the Self is the only reality:  I Be; therefore I Is.

Another Theory:  Solipsism:  Malarkey.

Answer 3

In a nutshell, solipsism is a philosophical stance that says basically, "I might be just a brain in a jar, and everything in the world that I perceive, including you, might be just an illusion."  

Since you can't step outside of your own mind, you can't prove that the outside world truly exists.    

Answer 4

Denial of the materialist existence, in itself, is not enough to be a solipsist. Possibly the most controversial feature of the solipsistic world view is the denial of the existence of other minds. We can never directly know another's mental state. Qualia, or personal experience, are private and infallible. Another person's experience can be known only by analogy.

Philosophers try to build knowledge on more than an inference or analogy. The failure of Descartes's epistemological enterprise brought to popularity the idea that all certain knowledge may end at "I think therefore I am" (cogito ergo sum).[1]

The theory of solipsism also merits close examination because it relates to three widely held philosophical presuppositions, which are themselves fundamental and wide-ranging in importance. These are:

That my most certain knowledge is the contents of my own mind — my thoughts, experiences, affects, etc.

That there is no conceptual or logically necessary link between the mental and the physical — between, say, the occurrence of certain conscious experiences or mental states and the 'possession' and behavioral dispositions of a 'body' of a particular kind (see the Brain in a vat);

That the experiences of a given person are necessarily private to that person.

Solipsism is not a single concept but instead refers to several world views whose common element is some form of denial of the existence of a universe independent from the mind of the agent.

Solipsism is first recorded with the Greek presocratic sophist, Gorgias (c. 483–375 BC) who is quoted by the Roman skeptic Sextus Empiricus as having stated:

Nothing exists;

Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and

Even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others.

Metaphysical solipsism:

Metaphysical solipsism is the variety of idealism which maintains that the individual self of the solipsistic philosopher is the whole of reality and that the external world and other persons are representations of that self having no independent existence (Wood, 295).

Epistemological solipsism:

Epistemological solipsism is the variety of idealism according to which only the directly accessible mental contents of the solipsistic philosopher can be known. The existence of an external world is regarded as an unresolvable question, or an unnecessary hypothesis rather than actually false.

Methodological solipsism:

Methodological solipsism is the epistemological thesis that the individual self and its states are the sole possible or proper starting point for philosophical construction (Wood, 295). The methodological solipsist does not intend to conclude that one of the stronger forms of solipsism is true, but rather believes that all other truths must be founded on indisputable facts about his own consciousness. A skeptical turn along these lines is cartesian skepticism.

Solipsism syndrome

Solipsism syndrome is a dissociative mental state. It is only incidentally related to philosophical solipsism. Solipsists assert that the lack of ability to prove the existence of other minds does not, in itself, cause the psychiatric condition of detachment from reality. The feeling of detachment from reality is unaffected by the answer to the question of whether the common-sense universe exists or not.

Consequences

To discuss consequences clearly, an alternative is required: solipsism as opposed to what? Solipsism is opposed to all forms of realism and many forms of idealism (insofar as they claim that there is something outside the idealist's mind, which is itself another mind, or mental in nature). Realism in a minimal sense, that there is an external universe is most likely not observationally distinct from solipsism. The objections to solipsism therefore have a theoretical rather than an empirical thrust.

One consequence that is inherent to solipsism is an atomic individualist view of the world and nature. If only I matter, then other people, animals, environments only matter insofar as they impact myself. This may be an anti-social philosophy. Language and other social mediums are taken for granted as self conceived and inherent. Maintenance of these social tools is not required, the individual need only exist, not interact with the world. Sincere solipsists are unlikely to be persuaded by such considerations; believing society to be non-existent, there is no question of being "anti social" for them.

The American eastern philosopher Alan Watts wrote extensively about this subject.

Answer 5

i will play, briefly.

solipsism falls into the realm of epistemology, which is concerned with the theory of knowledge: ie, what is known, how are things known.

the solipsist mind is alone and the universe is just a figment of it.

god is a solipsist.

if you are not joking with your question,

and somehow solipsism slipped into your field of inquiry,

i suggest starting with the roots and working out to the branches

Answer 6

The dictionary says it's the belief that one can have sure knowledge only of one's self. That position is not as popular now as it once was, back in the days of Hume and the Bishop Berkeley. It's an ancient argument that turns on your view of perception, our ability to gather information about the outside world. No longer a fashionable subject, I fear.