the view that all that exists or can be known to exist are one's own mind and its thoughts Although solipsism seems incredible, philosophers have found surprisingly strong arguments in its favour Such arguments illuminate the nature of knowledge and the mind, even if their conclusion is unacceptable
The view that all we know is our own consciousness and we cannot be sure that anything exists outside of our own minds In other words, we might be just imagining that each other, the chairs we sit in, the tea we drink, is real
Belief that only I myself and my own experiences are real, while anything elsea physical object or another personis nothing more than an object of my consciousness As a philosophical position, solipsism is usually the unintended consequence of an over-emphasis on the reliability of internal mental states, which provide no evidence for the existence of external referents Recommended Reading: Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago, 1984) {at Amazon com}; P F Strawson, Individuals: an Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics (Routledge, 1979) {at Amazon com}; and Albert A Johnstone, Rationalized Epistemology: Taking Solipsism Seriously (SUNY, 1991) {at Amazon com} Also see OCP, IEP, Roy A Sorenson, BGHT, ISM, noesis, and MacE