How could you convince a solipsist of that? It seems impossible to disprove the position “I am imagining that anything outside my consciousness is real”. Anything you cite as evidence is premised on the conclusion.
Language is how we create our stories. The story is “I am imagining that anything outside my consciousness is real.”
Without language the story cannot be formulated. But language presupposes an other. It exists to pass information. So the fact that we have language disproves solipsism.
This isn’t my argument btw. It’s Wittgenstein’s argument against Decartes “I think therefore I am”. Which was flawed anyway because he still believed in God and the Devil, so two others in Decartes solipsism).
Anyway, it’s a hard argument to break because solipsism is so imbedded in Western thinking. I had to drop LSD to break through it and get what Wittgenstein was saying.
Well self other is a false dichotomy ultimately. This is what the Buddha means by no self.
Language is how we form concepts, like self amd other. Without these concepts the question of solipsism can not arise.
And language is about communication. Moving information between two points. It presupposes these two positions. And thus falsifies solipsism.
then why does language occur internally and create new things, like you say, if its only function is about moving information:
Because the brain is made up of individual cells moving information around.
How could you convince a solipsist of that? It seems impossible to disprove the position “I am imagining that anything outside my consciousness is real”. Anything you cite as evidence is premised on the conclusion.
Language is how we create our stories. The story is “I am imagining that anything outside my consciousness is real.”
Without language the story cannot be formulated. But language presupposes an other. It exists to pass information. So the fact that we have language disproves solipsism.
This isn’t my argument btw. It’s Wittgenstein’s argument against Decartes “I think therefore I am”. Which was flawed anyway because he still believed in God and the Devil, so two others in Decartes solipsism).
Anyway, it’s a hard argument to break because solipsism is so imbedded in Western thinking. I had to drop LSD to break through it and get what Wittgenstein was saying.