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Solipsism and pyrrhonism

nick_m100

nick_m100

New Member
Do any of you have any theoretical ideas about solipsism and pyrrhonism?
If you've read 1984 you should know perfectly well what solipsism is. Pyrrhonism is a bit harder to find any information on and I want to discuss it a bit so I can learn about it also a decent definition as to what the **** it is would be nice too.
 
nick_m100 said:
Do any of you have any theoretical ideas about solipsism and pyrrhonism?
If you've read 1984 you should know perfectly well what solipsism is...
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I would have thought that The Matrix would be a better (and more populist) illustration of solipsism – a sort of teenage boy's version of the Cartesian "I think, therefore I am".

Too much of either will simply screw with your mind. Even Descartes copped out by ultimately deciding that God was a nice bloke and wouldn't do anything nasty to him.
 
Solipsism gets a bad rap by many philosophers, but to me it is an attractive concept. Wikipedia defines it:

Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists."

To me, this is true. The world "out there" is known to me only through my mind so I cannot prove that the world is not a creation of my mind. Yes, yes, I know that all sorts of things happen that I don't consciously control: earthquakes, pain, life, death. Still I have no independent proof that these things have an existence independent of my perception of them.

I have accepted this possibility but I don't worry about it. I proceed, like everyone else, to act as if the world out there has an independent reality.
 
Sybarite said:
I would have thought that The Matrix would be a better (and more populist) illustration of solipsism – a sort of teenage boy's version of the Cartesian "I think, therefore I am".

Too much of either will simply screw with your mind. Even Descartes copped out by ultimately deciding that God was a nice bloke and wouldn't do anything nasty to him.
Click to expand...
LOL - wonderful summary of Descartes.

It always struck me as rather cute that Descartes got as far as figuring out that there was no way he'd deduce his way out of the solipsist conundrum (how do I know that this is ME thinking and not somebody else making me think that it's ME thinking) - and then came back to the old standby (God).

Solipsism is a great way to question things, I find, and just generally to fool around, mentally speaking. As a category of thinking about things in principle, it is rather uninteresting, though. Whether some other (alien) entity is manipulating my brain or I am doing the, ahem, thinking myself, is ultimately irrelevant: it is impossible to prove either.
 
Considering how Descartes died, I'd say he eventually decided on the existence of money and royalty as well. If not the existence of warm underwear.
 
chuephödli said:
LOL - wonderful summary of Descartes.

It always struck me as rather cute that Descartes got as far as figuring out that there was no way he'd deduce his way out of the solipsist conundrum (how do I know that this is ME thinking and not somebody else making me think that it's ME thinking) - and then came back to the old standby (God).

Solipsism is a great way to question things, I find, and just generally to fool around, mentally speaking. As a category of thinking about things in principle, it is rather uninteresting, though. Whether some other (alien) entity is manipulating my brain or I am doing the, ahem, thinking myself, is ultimately irrelevant: it is impossible to prove either.
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Well, chuepoddli, everyone is entitled to their opinions. Even alien entities would be entitled.
 
Ah Helgi. Ever the source of worthless posts. Oh well for the most part they are enjoyable. Solipsism is not really as important as pyrrhonism to me because solipsism is more or less as well understood by me as it theoretically can be. Pyrrhnism draws a total blank due to the sheer lack of anything about it on the internet i get 46 results or so from google and most are completely irrelevant to anything about just mere references. Wiki amazingly hasn't a page or anything about it and that's a problem so if someone could give a definition or at least as good a definition as you can muster that would be really helpful in my random pursuits.
 
nick_m100 said:
Pyrrhnism draws a total blank due to the sheer lack of anything about it on the internet i get 46 results or so from google and most are completely irrelevant to anything about just mere references. Wiki amazingly hasn't a page or anything about it
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Really? I'm getting 44,800 results on google, the first one being a link to wikipedia.
 
not fair... i only got that many because i guess i put in phyrronism which is a completely different study point. oops.
 
That's it helgi. The aliens... I know they have my cheese those darn little globs and their obsession with french culture. Did they steal your cheese too? Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they don't want the wine too!
 
They theft my cheese from the window sill,
And in the wind, they had their fill,
I'm bereft of cheese that had no will,
What's left lays by a windy-mill,
Remaining there, it lays there still,
They left my cheese upon a hill


--helgi
 
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