Who has heard of Solipsism? Do you know what it is?

Answer 1

A favorite word.... gist is that if I close my eyes everything goes away. Site below gives a formal definition.

Aloha

Answer 2

The word solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is used for two related yet distinct concepts:

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. This is also called external world skepticism.
A metaphysical belief that the universe is entirely the creation of one's own mind. Thus, in a sense, the belief that nothing 'exists' outside of one's own mind.
Solipsism is first recorded with the Greek presocratic sophist Gorgias (c. 483–375 BC) who is quoted by the Roman sceptic Sextus Empiricus as having stated:

Nothing exists
Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it, and
Even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others

Answer 3

I have written the following about it:

"I went back to the most basic philosophical question, the question as to the reality of perception. Were my perceptions really that, i.e., reflections of things perceived [...]? Did my subjective sensations reflect an objective reality? Or were my sensations, my perceptions, really hallucinations - not even illusions, not distorted images, but completely dreamed up, merely imagined, things? Was my consciousness perhaps the only actuality? No one and nothing can convince me that he, she, or it does really exist apart from me, that he or she is a person, like myself, with a consciousness, like myself, or that it is a real object, like my body - in fact my body itself is only such a supposed object, which might not exist at all outside of my mind - even my brain, the stuff my mind is supposed to be made of may be a mere hallucination... This idea is explored by Jung and Serrano in NOS (see the section titled 'Self'):

http://feastofhateandfear.com/archives/serrano2.html

"Having convinced myself of this - that everything[...] existed only within my mind, was only a part of me -, I was, in effect, God."

Answer 4

it's a term in philosophy ; it's the theory that only the self exists or can be known. visit the following sites for more information:

Answer 5

it means that you think every element of your existence is some kind of hallucination even your own consciousness. an interesting concept

Answer 6

I have now... just googled it because I was curious. Strange idea or so it seems in my quick little look.