On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 04:02:36PM +1000, Colin Hales wrote: > > > BACK TO THE REAL ISSUE (solipsism) > > I am confused as to what the received view of the solipsist is. As us usual > in philosophical discourse, definitions disagree: > > > > "An epistemological position that one's own perceptions are the only things > that can be known with certainty. The nature of the external world - that > is, the source of one's perceptions - therefore cannot be conclusively > known; it may not even exist." > > or > > "belief in self as only reality: the belief that the only thing somebody can > be sure of is that he or she exists, and that true knowledge of anything > else is impossible" > > or > > "the belief that only one's own experiences and existence can be known with > certainty" > > > > The definitions are all variants on this theme.. >
It could also be argued that this theme is essentially instrumentalism. > --------------------------------- > > > > Q1. As a solipsist, if you say 'belief in self as the only reality' does > this entail the disbelief in anything else other than 'self' (=experiential > reality of the observer)? .i.e. ...the active denial of any reality other > than your experience? > I think solipsism goes further in denying existence of other minds. Note that denial of materiality, or even of noumenon does not eliminate other minds. > > > Q2. If experiences are all that are known with certainty, then why have > scientists universally (a) adopted the explicit appearances (of the external > reality) within experience as scientific evidence of an external reality, to > the complete exclusion of (b) the implicit evidence that the existence of > any experience at all provides that it is caused by something (and that > something is also external reality)? This is rather odd, since in the > 'certainty' stakes (b) wins. > Most scientists do not even think about ontological issues. Its as though they practise "as-if" instrumentalism regardless of their personal beliefs. -- *PS: A number of people ask me about the attachment to my email, which is of type "application/pgp-signature". Don't worry, it is not a virus. It is an electronic signature, that may be used to verify this email came from me if you have PGP or GPG installed. Otherwise, you may safely ignore this attachment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australia http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks International prefix +612, Interstate prefix 02 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
