Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds

Join George and John as they discuss and debate different Philosophical ideas. Today they will be looking into Solipsism and the problem of other minds.

Solipsism in the belief that the only certain knowledge one can have is the existence of their own minds, everything outside of their minds can therefore be doubted. Along with the material world all other minds are brought into doubt. A Solipsist will argue there is no way any other mind can ever be directly perceived or verified and so they have every right to believe they are the only mind that exists. The Solipsist therefore believes they exist alone in reality.

In this video George will be arguing from a Solipsist position whilst John will discuss the flaws with the theory.

This script is part of the Philosophy Vibe “Philosophy of Perception” eBook available on Amazon:

#solipsism #philosophy #philosophyofmind

[PhilosophyVibe]

This script is part of the Philosophy Vibe “Philosophy of Perception” eBook available on Amazon:

Check out the Philosophy Vibe "Metaphysics" paperback anthology, available worldwide on Amazon:

[therealjohndoe]

"I think, therefore I am...alone."

[malikc]

As a child, I believed this. Apparently it’s very common for humans to feel this way when quite young.

[AnitaRUFP]

I remember well, that when I was three years old I asked my mother, "If I can't see other people live their life and see their thoughts, how it it possible for them to exist?". I remember too, her shock. She spent much of my childhood trying to convince me that the world and it's people are real. Solipsism can get so deep, I can become so disconnected, that my motivation to do anything can disappear. Why bother if nothing is real? I really have to work hard to bring myself out of that space so I can be functional again. I've really been struggling and suffering for the last three weeks.

[micahwright]

“Are there any other solipsists out there?” is an inherently hilarious question. I love the idea that I’m the only person that exists and I just heard that joke. The meta nature of any discussion about solipsism is marvelously humorous.

[Yusuf-bzxh]

I am a schizophrenic with some solipsistic tendencies, partly due to the isolation that my mental illness causes me. I have delusions that I am mentally controlling world leaders and entire populations, and I have some feelings of guilt for tragic world events. I really loved your video and it really helped me. Thank you so much.

[tehnik]

I love how the video goes from it being about the problem as a possibility to George trying to defend it as a metaphysical position.

[sifugurusensei]

I often pretend that everything and everybody isn't real. This thought makes me be brave.

[QuestionEveryClaim]

When I was a child I wondered if things were real or just a dream eventually "surprise" convinced me I wasn't creative enough to come up with all this on my own.

[NTHlNG--C-HR]

I see it that we are one consciousness experiencing reality from all of life’s perspectives and with amnesia. Before you are in this world you knew everything and life is the process of remembering. This is what I heard the Greeks thought. And as for the Buddhist. Treating all life with respect because it is essentially apart of yourself. When we die we are stripped of our egos and remember who we are. Like many leaves on one tree.

[CaptGlo]

I as of this day, officially love whoever created this channel. Seeing that I have created you, meaning that I love mySELF. You don’t have a mind and I’m only talking to my self. I obviously created this world to see if I can have fun with myself 🥴 All seriousness though, thank you for the content. Glad I’ve found this channel.

[Harihar_Patel]

We don’t have direct access to other minds so there is no way to prove they exist or not from a first person basis. We can ask other people what they see but that is indirect access. So other minds exist just that we don’t have direct access to them.

[happierabroad]

Does anyone else feel that they are the only real person here and that everyone else are just actors like in the Truman Show or NPCs like in the Matrix or just characters in a dream? That would explain why people don't make sense and can't see obvious things that I see.

Interesting question: When you are in a dream, you can talk to other people in the dream. So are the people in your dream self-aware and sentient and conscious? If not and they are merely creations of your own mind, then how do you know if people in the waking real world are real and self-aware or not? It's impossible to know. Any of you think about this too?

Another possibility is shared solipsism, which is that there are a few real people or real souls in this matrix or dream, but most people are NPCs. Matt from the Quantum of Conscience channel talks about this and that's why most people are not awake at all.

[kaiirizarry]

I utterly despise this philosophy. The only way out of it is through yourself. In my case, I noticed that in all of my dreams that I can only hear and see, but my senses of touch, smell, and taste are not present. I have had several dreams where I’ve been hurt but I have felt no pain. I can only “see” and “hear” let’s say someone hitting me but not feel it. Whereas in external reality I can perceive not only all the known senses but everything is experienced much more clearly than a dream. Also there appears to be a continuity in this reality whereas dreams are consistently changing. In my own opinion, it just seems the mind is better at receiving data and interpreting it, than it is at creating one entirely on its own. At least in my own case.

[BlindSwami_]

I wouldn't say I think I'm the only mind that exists and everything is in my mind, rather that I cannot be certain that this isn't the case. Because of this, my inner world is pretty much just as meaningful as any other world that may or may not exist. It's pretty much a work around to the whole idea that we are just an insigificant speck of dust in an infinite universe, thus we don't really matter. If I or anyone else matters in my inner world, then hey they matter.

[Casinizucchini]

Solipsism reminds me of the Greek concept of hubris. If you are the creator of all, if everything is you, you amount yourself to a god. You deny any and all thought from somebody else. It’s difficult to disprove and prove. To me what disproves it is that when I talk to somebody they can tell me things I did not know. I could think I know something about somebody, simplify who they are in my head, that person can disprove my thoughts of them.

[OceanicMemory]

The problem with manipulating the reality is that it reveals that you are dreaming, it kills the realness of the experience therefore it would not last long for you, it's like using cheat codes in the game, you could skip all kinds of missions and objectives without any problem, it kills the journey, no one wants to be trapped in a lucid dream, always wake up into the same place with no way out!
So the only way is to hide the fact you are dreaming, no access to the truth, no past memory and also the limitation of though process all help you believe that you are not dreaming, you are living and it's all real, you feel pain, you get sick, you are a powerless ant, playing God is boring, you have access to anything, there is no goal or need, at best it's just mindless masturbation without any meaningless experience, there is no game without no rule, and the rule is limitation, it adds all kinds of mini games to enjoy, a long lasting experience, a life story with real characters for you to tell yourself, it's the perfect design.
Still I'm not saying it's the truth, but I think if you think about it, it could work when you are the only conscious mind, you could use a dream machine to fool yourself into live like this, full of meaningful interactions.
But still it could be wrong, you could be a multidimensional being that could pilot endless conscious minds, switching between them to process them all at once, like the way CPU works, it only could process one thing (thread) at a time, the crazy fast switching cycles between these processes in the queue lets you experience running all the apps at once.

[himanshutahiliani]

This was an AMAZINGG use of private language theory against solipsism I had not seen before.

Big fan here, guys, keep up the good work!!

[PowerFromAbove]

"Philosophical Zombies with dead consciences all around me" is a whole mood.

[Kikithefilthyrichwitch]

Because God want to experience life in every shape or form ❤❤❤❤