I had in mind (from very 'old' studies/readings) a somewhat different version of the "hard' solipsism and this one - sort of - eliminates the validity of the questions. I will interject. My take was Russell's remark I mark with *** in the post.
John M ----- Original Message ----- From: "Russell Standish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:23 AM Subject: Re: Reality, the bogus nature of the Turing test > > 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. JM: I would formulate it harder: "there is ONLY "MY" mind and it produces all that I (think to) experience as existent' at all. In that case it does not make sense to "deny" or "eliminate" the nonexistent. My problem was: why am I so stupid to imagine such a "bad" world? so I dropped solipsism. > > > > > > > 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. > > JM: in my 'hard' solipsism that all is my figment. You are nonexistent, the world is nonexistent, the problems and their solutions are my decisions/experiences in my own mind. To continue this line into cosequency is the road to the nuthouse. Bon Voyage! > > 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 JM: John Mikes --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
