my mind begins to hum...

[mayavin]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

The external world and other minds cannot be known
and might not exist.
In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis.

[mayavin]

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 perceptual independent existence (Wood, 295).

[the fire elf]

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.

[mayavin]

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.

[mayavin]

Some objections to solipsism are based on questions of perception.

1) The technical approach: Perception is the faculty of awareness.
A faculty is an attribute.
Attributes do not exist apart from the entity or entities
that have that characteristic.
Hence perception requires an existent entity with that faculty,
thus contradicting the solipsist premise that only perception exists.

2) The common sense approach:
The solipsist position that only one's personal perception exists
requires one to hold that all the creations of which one is aware
were created within one's own perceptual functioning.
Thus the plays of Shakespeare,
the symphonies of Beethoven and Mozart,
Maxwell's Equations and the theory of Relativity,
the theorems of Calculus and higher mathematics,
and even this article were created by one's own perceptual operations.

3) The solipsist thinks,
goes through reasoning processes about his perceptions.
His consciousness is not just perceptions;
it's also thinking about them.
How is this possible without some mental machinery which can perform such?
But if such mental machinery exists independent and apart from his perceptions,
this also contradicts the "perceptions only" premise.

[mayavin]

Or an exponent of a weak form of solipsism might say that harming others
is imprudent because the solipsist can only be uncertain
of their real existence
rather than certain of their non-existence.
Another expression of this point is in noting the strong feelings
that a human can have for a non-existence character in a movie,
or, for a car or boat which is admitted to be completely non sentient.
There is no logical or psychological reason to prevent a solipsist caring
for observed people,
even if the solipsist is completely convinced of their non-existence.

[the fire elf]

solipsism seems only to have found a facile way to avoid
the more difficult task of a critical analysis
of what is 'real' and what isn't, and what 'reality' means.
Some might say Solipsism is not impoverished
because it helps philosophers operate from a principle of doubt
because their difficult task
can only determine the probability of what is real and what isn't.
The solipsist would hold that further argument is meaningless

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

looking past people doesn't reveal the nature of
that which lies behind

[mayavin]

it was referring to the annointing

[the fire elf]

hahaha

[mayavin]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

[mayavin]

[the fire elf]

it seems the direct unfoldments from the ruse which drew me from venice
near a close...

undoubtably, the ripples merge with the obvious wave unfoldments...

successes on some level seemed to mirror disappointment on another...

none wholly divisible from other crossections of spacetime

[mayavin]

indubitably

[the fire elf]