5 Answers

  1. From the point of view of “the existence and nature of matter” – there is no way to refute it, since first you will have to somehow prove to the solipsist the existence of this very “matter”, which, by definition, is objective reality. And the solipsist is precisely engaged in rejecting objective reality, that is, matter – and this is a vicious circle from which you can not get out. Agree, the definition from the Marxist textbook that “matter is a reality given to us in sensations” is not an argument at all, it's just words, “vibrations of the air”.

    On the other hand, it seems to me that solipsism can be refuted practically: if a Solipsist stands before me and claims that the whole world, including myself, is a figment of his imagination, I will only have one question: why are you proving this to me now? Or anyone else? Or in general, why do you communicate with someone, write books and articles about your solipsism, buy yogurt at a discount, or pay your apartment bills? Aren't all these actions interacting with some reality that doesn't seem to depend on you? And once you interact with it and continue to interact-it turns out that, in your opinion, only you really exist in the world (“solipsism” is formed from Latin solus – the only one), nothing changes, you still have to act as if there are other people too. And if there is no difference – isn't it better to admit that these others really exist?

  2. No way.

    «Professor Corcoran's strange boxes.” Stanislav Lem.�

    <…>

    – Each of these boxes contains an electronic device with consciousness. Like our brain. The building material is different, but the principle is the same. The similarity ends there. For our brains-pay attention! – connected, so to speak, to the outside world through the senses: eyes, ears, nose, sensitive endings of the skin, and so on. These people here “– he pointed to the crates with an outstretched finger – ” have the outside world inside them…

    – How is that possible?” I asked, beginning to guess something. It was a vague guess, but it made her shiver.

    “Very simple. How do we know that we have just such a body and not another, just such a face? That we are standing, that we are holding a book in our hands, that the flowers smell? You will answer that certain impulses affect our senses and the corresponding signals run along the nerves to our brain. Now imagine, Tichy, that I can affect your olfactory nerve in the same way that a sweet clove does – what will you feel?

    “The smell of cloves, of course,” I said.

    The professor grunted, as if pleased that I was clear enough, and went on:

    – And if I do the same thing to all your nerves, you won't feel the outside world, but what I'm telegraphing through these nerves to your brain … understand?”

    “I see.

    – Well, that's it. These boxes have receptors-organs that act similarly to our vision, smell, hearing, touch, and so on. But the wires that run from these receptors are not connected to the outside world, like our nerves, but to that drum in the corner. You haven't noticed him, have you?

    “No, – I said.

    In fact, this drum, about three meters in diameter, was standing upright at the back of the hall, like a millstone, and after a while I noticed that it was turning extremely slowly.

    “It's their fate,” Professor Corcoran said calmly. “Their fate, their world, their existence – all that they can achieve and know. There are special tapes with electrical impulses recorded on them; they correspond to the hundred or two hundred billion phenomena that a person can encounter in the most impressive life. If you lifted the lid of the drum, you would see only shiny ribbons covered with white zigzags, like mildew on celluloid, but these are, of course, hot southern nights and the roar of waves, these are the bodies of animals and the roar of gunfire, these are funerals and drunkenness, the taste of apples and pears, snowstorms, evenings spent in a family circle around a blazing fireplace, and screams on the deck of a sinking ship, and mountain peaks, and cemeteries, and delirious dreams. Hallucinations, – Iyon is Quiet, there is the whole world!

    I didn't say anything, but Corcoran gripped my shoulder in an iron grip and said, ” I don't know.:

    “These boxes seem to be connected to the artificial world. This one “– he pointed to the first box on the edge – ” looks like a seventeen-year-old girl, green-eyed, red-haired, with a body worthy of Venus. She is the daughter of a statesman… in love with a young man whom she sees almost every day through the window… Which would be her curse. This second one is a scientist. He is already close to constructing a general theory of gravity that is valid for his world-a world whose borders are the metal body of the drum, and is preparing to fight for his truth in solitude, deepened by the threatened blindness, for soon he will be blind, Silent… And there, above, is a member of the spiritual board, and he is going through the most difficult days of his life, because he has lost faith in the existence of an immortal soul.… But I can't tell you about the lives of all the creatures I've created…

    <…>

  3. It is so easy to refute solipsism that even a kindergarten child can do it. It's just that philosophizing talkers don't want to strictly follow the logic of proof – when everyone is required to prove their claims, and must state refutations of the other party's arguments.

    A realist can do this, but a solipsist cannot even start an argument – because he is forced to start talking about comparing imaginary ideas and real ones )) Well, that's it, as soon as these two concepts are separated, as soon as a discussion about reality is allowed, then imaginability immediately flies by because it cannot refute reality in any way.

    Solipsists brazenly suggest shifting the burden of proof to those who say that there is reality, but this joke will not pass, everyone proves their own. You came up with what happens completely imaginary world, well, go ahead, listen carefully to your reasoning!

    A lawyer will immediately understand the trick of philosophers and other religious dogmatists.

    It is enough for a realist to ask one question to a solipsist – and the imaginary world and the real world are definitely different concepts, do you confirm?

    PS-you can immediately agree and say YES solipsist you are right, you are imaginary and impose fictional ideas on me, so I cross you out, because I really exist and prove it to myself perfectly absolutely.

    There can only be one solipsist alive ))

    So solipsists confuse the “inability to prove the existence of other external consciousnesses” that is true, and the inability to prove the existence of true representations of reality – which is wrong, because it is very possible.

    PS-2 and if someone wants to talk about practice instead of pure logic, then it's even easier! Imaginary representations are our desires, aspirations. And if they do not come true, and do not obey the will of the solipsist, then somewhere there is an objective reality.

    The solipsist cannot remove any external stimuli, for example, he cannot change this text that refutes solipsism ))

  4. Solipsism offers at least two things: that there is a certain I, an imagining subject, and exactly what I imagined.

    I am systematically confronted with the fact that this “imaginary” is beyond my control. At a minimum, this already means that the” imagined “world is”objective” in relation to me.

  5. There is no way to refute Solipsism, because any proof can be reduced to its “illusory nature”, and any material argument can be declared a figment of the imagination. However, you should not be upset here – solipsism cannot be confirmed, it is an unscientific idea, so it is impossible to apply scientific methodology to it.

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