Solipsism

It's me, not you. (The Bus 8.28)

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED (4.15) 13 November 2023

The Stop

Solipsism is the philosophical concept which states that only my mind is sure to exist, that knowledge of anything outside of my own mind is unsure, and therefore that neither the external world nor other minds can be truly known. In fact, for a solipsist, these might not even exist outside of my mind at all.¹

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

An ‘extreme form of skepticism,’ solipsism says that as I am the ‘only conscious being in existence,’ the entire ‘cosmos’ began to exist when I became conscious, and it will therefore ‘vanish’ when I die. Though such a statement might seem crazy at best, it nevertheless rests on the reality of what philosophers call a brute fact:² the inescapable reality that ‘each of us is sealed in an impermeable prison cell of subjective awareness.’ In other words, we can only know our own minds - and that becomes an issue when trying to establish whether other minds exist.

Solipsism arose as an answer to this issue, formally known as the problem of other minds. In short, the philosophical problem is created by the fact that while I can experience my mind every waking second, I can only infer the existence of other minds through indirect means. Because other people certainly appear to possess ‘conscious perceptions, emotions, memories [and] intentions,’ I can infer that - like me - they have a mind. But, as I cannot get into their heads directly and experience their mind first-hand, I cannot be certain they do. I can guess how the world looks to them from their ‘behaviour and utterances,’ but I have no direct access to their inner life. For all I know, they might not have one at all - they might actually just be a very clever robot powered by very advanced A.I.

Though often expressed as the philosophical belief that ‘I am the only mind which exists,’ or that ‘my mental states are the only mental states,’ solipsism is more correctly understood as saying ‘existence means for me my existence and that of my mental states.’ In this case, existence is defined by what I experience - things, people, events, feelings, etc. - ‘anything that would commonly be regarded as a constituent of the space and time in which I coexist with others and is necessarily construed by me as part of the content of my consciousness.’ For the solipsist, it is not that a particular person’s ‘thoughts, experiences, and emotions are, as a matter of contingent fact, the only thoughts, experiences, and emotions.’ Rather, a solipsist is unable to attach any actual meaning to the ‘supposition that there could be thoughts, experiences, and emotions other than his own.’ A ‘true solipsist’ would therefore understand the word ‘pain’ can only refer to ‘my pain,’ and cannot ‘conceive how this word is to be applied in any sense other than this exclusively egocentric one.’

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to Cuties, an animated short film (5:33) by Theo W. Scott. Described as a ‘hand-drawn sequential telling of human history in all its horror and glory, culminating in our next evolutionary leap,’ the film ‘explores the elusive beauty in how we as a species continue forward in spite of our proclivity for destruction.’ It’s bizarre and very trippy. Worth the time.

Cuties

The Recommendation

Today’s Recommendation is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground (1864).³ Published in the style of a memoir or confession, the novella is divided into two parts. In the first part, the unnamed narrator - a bitter, misanthropic and isolated retired civil servant - expounds his philosophy about the misery and suffering of life in an ‘embittered monologue’ told from his from his basement in St Petersburg. ‘Intoxicated with spite,’ the narrator relays increasingly ‘loftier … intellectual pontifications, critiquing contemporary philosophies on rationalism and free will.’

In the second part, the narrator relays the ‘engrossing story leading to his seclusion.’ He says he is ‘burdened with one ancient memory’ he hopes to exorcise by writing it down. This story - of himself as a ‘gloomy, untidy and solitary to a savage extent’ 24-year-old - is about a profoundly humiliating social occasion with old school friends that led him to seek revenge. In the process, he meets the 20-year-old Liza, a prostitute, to whom he is ‘both attracted and repelled.’ Through a series of increasingly bizarre attempts to attain an improved social and moral standing, he instead ‘dig[s] himself into an ever deeper hole,’ finding himself both literally and metaphorically underground.

Often overshadowed by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) and 'The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Notes from Underground nevertheless deserves a wider popular audience, for by ‘elegantly excavating the particularities of his era … Dostoevsky strikes upon timeless truths, and with perspicacious analysis of behaviour, tunnels through to hidden depths.’ A classic that is worth the time and effort.

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks that are related - albeit tenuously - to solipsism: ‘How to Disappear Completely’ (Radiohead, 2000), ‘Legend of a Mind’ (The Moody Blues, 1968), ‘The Trees’ (Rush, 1978), ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ (Pink Floyd, 1979) and ‘One’ (Metallica, 1988). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard:⁴

‘My standpoint is armed neutrality.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

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Until the next Stop …

1. I am not, for the record, a solipsist, though I don’t disagree with some of its tenets. Solipsism is a topic far more complicated than the time a Stop allows. Consequently, this is a very brief introduction to the concept - and its root concept, the problem of other minds. If you want to know more, you can check out the sources for today’s Stop: Solipsism (Scientific American), Solipsism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) and Notes from Underground (The Guardian).

2. In philosophy, a brute fact is a ‘fact that is unexplained, i.e. a fact of which there is no explanation.’ For (much) more information, see: Brute Fact (Standford).

3. Dostoevsky is - rightfully - considered a difficult, heavy read and Notes from Underground is typical. If you’ve never read him, it might be best to start with one of his short stories. The one I taught as part of a unit on Russian literature in my tenth grade/Year 11 advanced English classes was ‘An Honest Thief’, and it’s a perfect introduction to Dostoevsky - and it’s only about 20 pages long.

4. He’s back! Kierkegaard is one of my favourite philosophers, and has been the source of a number of Thoughts (see The Bus 2.32 ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, 2.36 ‘Exquisite Words Part 3’ and 3.3. ‘Frédéric Chopin’).