SOLIPSISM: AM I TRULY THE ONLY ONE IN EXISTENCE?

in #philosophy7 years ago

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While in the University, my lecturer told me that religious experiences are personal and cannot be explained. She argued that when the Holy Spirit, for instance, visits an individual, the experience is very unique and no matter how the person tries to present the scenario using words, it would be very hard to present it the way it happened. This is why you hear 'it is like', 'it felt like', because words cannot capture what happened.

Similarly, when someone is experiencing pain, only the person feeling the pain can fully understand the seriousness of the pain and what it feels like. No matter how the person tries to explain it, we wont get it and even if we have had similar experiences in the past, we still can't know what the person is truly feeling because the feelings cannot be the same. 

So the above informs the idea behind private experiences. For this reason, some scholars are of the opinion that human experiences are private, personal and unique. 

Let's see what a movement in philosophy says about private experiences.

Solipsism is the position in Metaphysics and Epistemology that the mind is the only thing that can be known to exist and that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. Source

For this view, only 'self' exists. All my mental states are the only things in existence. Anything external, is according to this view, illusion. 

For the solipsist, it is not merely the case that he believes that his thoughts, experiences, and emotions are, as a matter of contingent fact, the only thoughts, experiences, and emotions. Rather, the solipsist can attach no meaning to the supposition that there could be thoughts, experiences, and emotions other than his own. In short, the true solipsist understands the word "pain," for example, to mean "my pain." Source

I cannot really refute the idea of pain because i cannot understand the pain of a supposed external body. The only pain i can have a first class knowledge about is mine and the one experienced by me. it is hard, for instance, to fully explain how you are feeling to someone because only you can feel the pain. For the solipsist, human experiences are private.

Now is it the case that every human experiences are private and real? What happens to the experiences of others and their feelings? Is it the case that only 'self' truly exists? Are there no other beings in existence? 

The reality of this whole thing is that not all our experiences are private and to say only 'self' exist is to wallow in illusion because their are other things/beings in existence.

Solipsism has a good point when it comes to some experiences but this cannot be said about all experiences because we can truly know the feelings of others the same way psychologist use their tools understand us.

The idea that i am the only one in existence it itself a great illusion!

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