Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

I'm toying with being an Anti-Solipsist, which basically states that everybody exists but me. I am completely imaginary and just a figment of real people's perceptions.

Since you exist, you should find this interesting, except that it came from me, an entity that is just a figment of your imagination.

Then again maybe not.

As you can see, I'm still working out some bugs with this worldview.

(grin)

I joke because I find the question slightly inane: people are who they are. It's not like they choose a philosophy and suddenly become something besides the emotional, reasoning hominids they've been all their lives. Philosophies can be bent, and people are really good at bending them to suit their predisposed character traits. In my opinion, of course.

View on HN

Philosophies can be bent, and people are really good at bending them to suit their predisposed character traits. In my opinion, of course.

Those aren't the interesting characters. The interesting ones are the ones that do change to suit a new philosophy.

I agree it's inane. But, none the less, still interesting to hear people's philosophies.

Personally my philosophy seems to change as I go through life and have new experiences and different goals.

A friend of mine used to joke about anti-solipsism. He calls it being "the hole in the cosmic doughnut". :)

If you think about the ephemeral nature of being alive, anti-solipsism has a lot going for it.

The question "why exist" is a non-starter, however, since the question can only be posed (and answered) by some part of something that _does_ exist. Existence IS, there is no why. Why is non-material.

God I love philosophy.

You could rephrase it as "why continue to exist?"

I think that's what the original meant.

Well, it's two different things, obviously. "Why continue to exist?" is personal but "Why does anything exist?" is much more interesting. Except, I'm starting to think it's a loaded question, as your parent, I think, was implying. Due to our innate perception of things coming into and out of existence.

It's an interesting question that I have no good answer for!

Eckhart Tolle?

If you think about it, anti-solipsism, or at least the pre-solipsism era lasted for millions of years before solipsism. That fact alone makes me think solipsism is a bunch of hogwash.

I like Raymond Smullyan's strategy for arguing with a solipsist:

    Only I exist.
    Absolutely correct.  Only I exist!

As far as philosophies go, I also like his "Materialist Mystic" stance. (Not Raymond's personal philosophy. He just thinks it's a neat idea.) A big unspoken assumption of many materialists is that they could understand everything if they'd bother to. But even Richard Feynman said that hardly anyone really understood Quantum Mechanics. I'm sure there are innumerable things out there that could be understood in rational terms, but which are not understood yet. I guess that last one is my version of Faith.

Actually, there is something of an anti-solipsist position. Thomas Nagel discusses it in his classic "The View From Nowhere." If solipsism might be regarded as holding that nothing exists other than what is perceived from one's _subjective_ viewpoint, then anti-solipsism holds that nothing exists other than the _objective_ "viewpoint." What the anti-solipsist would deny is his own perspective as a subject in the world, which as one might imagine, is as impossible as holding a solipsist position. Nagel's book strives to reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable perspectives -- subjective and objective. Recommended reading.

I disagree with this interpretation of anti-solipsism, although since I don't exist, it's okay if you find my argument lacking.

I feel that other people still exist as subjective entities, just that the validation of my subjectivity is lacking, ie, while it seems obvious that every human throughout the existance of mankind has had the subjective experience of existing, I disbelieve that any reasonable percentage of them believe that I have had the subjective experience of existing. Therefore, while it seems to me that I have the subjective experience of existing, that's just an artifact of semantics. In reality for 99.99999999999% of the cosmos (actually the number is zero) I do not, in fact, exist.

But I'm sure Nagel is more on the money. Sounds like a good read.

People can also be bent. I saw a documentary the other day where neurologists explained that much of our perception of the world is a construction of our brain, that's why it can easily be tricked by illusions.

One of them concluded that since your world is shaped by your view of it, changing the way you think changes the world. This was the neurologist who had studied meditating people. No one explicitely mentioned philosophy as way to change your thinking though.

Isn't Trent Reznor somewhat of an anti-solipsist? A lot of his lyrics hint at it.

I did a search for it, and ironically this thread came up as one of the top results. I guess Google _really_ likes YC News. I would be interested to read more about it, I guess I'll have to dig a little deeper.

this thread came up as one of the top results. I guess Google _really_ likes YC News.

Just wait a few hours; whenever this submission falls off the front page, Google should drop it quicker than a greased pig down a mud slide.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com