Wouldn't Occam's Razor support the idea that I am the only consciousness in the universe?

Question

Or "you", the reader. I'm not saying I think this is the case. I don't know. The principle says to make as few assumptions as possible. I can't prove you exist so I have no basis to assume you do. Isn't this simpler that the alternative?

JP: Perhaps....

Yeah.....it probably is simpler to assume what I see is reality. You guys are probably right. I was still considering the options when I asked the question...

Answer 1

Occam's razor helps distinguish, "REALITY" from subjective observations...

And it might help you to realize your own "REALITY" exists entirely in your own mind, with only the input from our often biased and inadequate senses to show our "SHARED REALITY" (and, we ASSUME, universal and true reality, since we can agree on certain points, but this is again only, and can only ever be, an assumption.)

Yes...You ARE the only consciousness that you can know for sure exists, you could be in a coma, having an exceptionally long and vivid dream...Appearances can deceive, circumstances can conspire, and prejudice towards expectation can warp perception, and since these perceptions are the ACTUAL composition of each individual picture of reality, they are completely and irrefutably true to us unless someone or something can change our minds...

And I believe that THAT is the true lesson of Occam's Razor...
That we must keep an open mind...And live as though we KNOW the truth, even though we will always find it to be only "approximate."

Answer 2

Occam's razor is not a law, it is a guideline. It suggests that the explanation requiring the least number of assumptions is often the best. It doesn't mean that any explanation which relies on assumptions is false.

When we have to rely on assumptions we should have a good reason for doing so and understand what weaknesses are introduced by our assumption.

I just read this on the Wikipedia entry for "Occam's Razor":

"[edit] Necessity
Occam's razor is not an embargo against the positing of any kind of entity, or a recommendation of the simplest theory come what may. After all the simplest theory is something like "only I exist" (solipsism) or "nothing exists". The point is that whatever entities are posited should pay their way by doing some explanatory work. Others are unnecessary."

Answer 3

No, it's not simpler than to assume that others behave the way they do because they are (to some extent) conscious. I mean, they appear to go about their lives much the way you do, which means they can be assumed to be similar inside. Not the same, Lord knows, but similar. And there are clearly those that behave as though there is no one home inside, but they are not the majority, whatever mass media portrays.

But I do get your point. Many people seem to have accepted the devolution, or dumbing down, of the species. Yet many of us resist, and I think Yahoo Answers is a sign of that resistance, as well as a tool for it.

Answer 4

Sorry Occam's Razor is busy shaving right now. You may well be in a class by yourself of consciousness, but the rest of us consciously know that and avoid you.

Answer 5

What's the assumption? That every sense you have, every time any neuro-receptor gets any input at all, Trillions of times a day, that each and every time it is wrong? How does that make fewer assumptions? Isn't it smipler to assume that what you see/feel/taste/hear/smell really is?

Answer 6

I don't see how it's simpler to conclude that the entire universe is an enormously complex figment of your imagination, which itself exists by unknown causes, than to conclude that you are one of many who act much the same way you do, living in a world that is much the way it appears.

Answer 7

Occam's Razor used with Pascal's Wager will always give you the best odds.

Answer 8

It sounds like Occam needs to sharpen that Razor if that's the best theory it can come up with... ;-P

Answer 9

Look into Pantheism and Brahmanism. makes a lot more sense to me than the western sense of an old man sitting on a cloud watching us.

Answer 10

It applies only when they are equal suppositions. So if you think the evidence is equally good that you are alone and there are millions of others, then yes you should pick the simplest.