Great presentation! I know, myself, that my mind, as it appears to me on a daily basis, could not create the complex world we live in. The world seems to do its own thing, consistently every time, without me for the most part. My mind, however, is not always as consistent. It seems that, for solipsism to work, my mind would have to be doing and computing all of these things that I am unaware of, and for some unknown reason, at the same time, making me think that I am incapable of the computation. A counter to this comes to mind, but one that can be rebutted: the unconscious mind. I do actually believe that I have an unconscious mind that does do a lot of computation, hidden in the background - but this mind is also not up to the task. A lot of perception, such as vision, is handled by the unconscious before I am even aware of it - and it, also, is inconsistent at times.
Thank you. I agree with the position you have outlined. It seems unlikely to me that a single mind has the capacity to generate something as complex and consistently changing as reality.
I'd say I'm a soft solipsist, in that I know I exist and something not me exists, but other selves may or may not exist. There is no objective standpoint with which we can determine what a mind is or what it is capable of. Why couldn't a mind create such a consistent picture of reality or simulate an entire universe? Who's to say what a mind can do? Why wouldn't a mind be able to produce consistent results, or produce the illusion of other minds? The fact that we can experience incredibly realistic dreams points to the fact that much of our lived reality is constructed by the same machinery that creates these dreams.
It is definitely an interesting line of thought. I go back and forth on whether or not a mind could produce such a consistent illusion. Ultimately, I think it is a question that will forever go unanswered in any definitive way.
Great presentation! I know, myself, that my mind, as it appears to me on a daily basis, could not create the complex world we live in. The world seems to do its own thing, consistently every time, without me for the most part. My mind, however, is not always as consistent. It seems that, for solipsism to work, my mind would have to be doing and computing all of these things that I am unaware of, and for some unknown reason, at the same time, making me think that I am incapable of the computation.
A counter to this comes to mind, but one that can be rebutted: the unconscious mind. I do actually believe that I have an unconscious mind that does do a lot of computation, hidden in the background - but this mind is also not up to the task. A lot of perception, such as vision, is handled by the unconscious before I am even aware of it - and it, also, is inconsistent at times.
Thank you. I agree with the position you have outlined. It seems unlikely to me that a single mind has the capacity to generate something as complex and consistently changing as reality.
I'd say I'm a soft solipsist, in that I know I exist and something not me exists, but other selves may or may not exist.
There is no objective standpoint with which we can determine what a mind is or what it is capable of. Why couldn't a mind create such a consistent picture of reality or simulate an entire universe? Who's to say what a mind can do? Why wouldn't a mind be able to produce consistent results, or produce the illusion of other minds?
The fact that we can experience incredibly realistic dreams points to the fact that much of our lived reality is constructed by the same machinery that creates these dreams.
It is definitely an interesting line of thought. I go back and forth on whether or not a mind could produce such a consistent illusion. Ultimately, I think it is a question that will forever go unanswered in any definitive way.