There are many theories about our world, how it was created, how it functions, etc. Maybe one of the most interesting ones is Solipsism. Before we can analyze this philosophy, we need to know what it actually is.
What is Solipsism?
If we ask our friend Google we get this:
Solipsism (Latin solus 'alone', and ipse 'self') 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.
Logically we set the idea that if something cannot be proven it should not exist, but is that true?
Why I can’t agree with the general idea of Solipsism
Solipsism has other varieties to it, one of which I will discuss later, but the general idea of it seems too extreme. Even if we cannot prove the existence of anything else besides our own self – that does not mean everything else is false. Any piece of information has to come from somewhere and that makes it true by itself because you observe something which tells us that it should exist somewhere so it can be reached – observation means existence. One other idea is that “A mighty being can control your thoughts and make this reality look real to you, this makes the being real but not the reality itself” – this other idea coming also from Solipsism is incorrect in my opinion too, because even the thoughts of a being, a person or whatever consciousness it may be are real somewhere so you can actually interpret them. Everything is real in some context, everything is in some way or another conscious.
The debate over what is real and what not
People tend to argue that matter is more real than anything else. If we can touch it – that means it exists. But we cannot touch oxygen, does that make it less real than matter? Because we cannot observe something with our senses does not mean it isn’t real. People are limited, we are not the center of the universe which means that our senses do not define reality. Our senses are tools used to understand our surroundings and not the other way around. Solipsism tries to tell us that we are more important than everything around us, which is not exactly the case.
The observer is important but…
Quantum mechanics tell us that reality can behave differently if there is an observer if consciousness is present in the room. It makes us, as beings having this gift of being conscious, more important. This is correct in my opinion – more conscious means more important and more capable to change the world around us, but we are not the center of the universe, no single consciousness is. Everything around us is a system that works with one another. Even matter can have some sort of conscious aspect to itself which further proves to us that the observer is important but not the most important thing in the universe.
Yes, we cannot prove anything
We will never be able to prove anything, even the smallest of matter - the atom – we cannot know with certainty that it is what we observe it to be, but currently, the reality is what we perceive it, so our reality is based on knowledge of it and changes over time as we progress and become more conscious of it. This means that reality is subjective to the information. Our reality is different from another person's. By being more conscious we see more of the depth of reality itself, it all has been there the whole time, but also has been hidden from you because of your previous limited consciousness. This means that reality by itself is not a fixed thing. Objectivism is nonexistent. Everything is subjective not only from our mind's point of view but also by our realities image. Everything around us changes and nothing is fixed. We can have laws that dictate the universe, but even they can change and we have seen that there are loopholes to even the most fixed laws we have found (like with the speed of light and the quantum entanglement proving that the speed of light is not the maximum speed). So we do not need facts to know that something is real. We just need to have information about its existence. This does not mean that every logical pattern is real - no, it means that the thing you are feeling, observing, or the information you are getting from somewhere is actually real, it exists somewhere so you can observe it. Our mind shapes our reality more than we think it does which makes it possible for two completely opposite ideas to work both together and be true at the same time. That is why I like this quote:
One other variety of Solipsism: Epistemological
Wikipedia:
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 rather than actually false. Further, one cannot also be certain as to what extent the external world exists independently of one's mind. However, the point remains that epistemological solipsists consider this an "unresolvable" question.
This variety of solipsism makes more sense to me. It is not perfect, but we have to rather look unto the outside world as an unresolved mystery rather than false by default. We cannot disagree that the mind influences the world around us and it is hard to understand to the fullest things you perceive because of our limited minds. That is why faith comes in place where there is uncertainty. But that is for another topic…
In the end
Our world is an interesting and unique place. It provides us many mysteries unto which we can dabble with ages, but maybe most of them will remain what they always have been – unresolved questions. As always, take care of yourself, be happy, peace and love to you and until next time <3