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.
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.