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Methodological Solipsism
4 months ago
General
It's a bit of a mouthful, but methodological solipsism is my bread and butter. You may have heard of solipsism before (believing that you're the only thing that exists), but this is not that.
If you've got a couple minutes to read, hear me out.
If you run everything in your reality through the filter of empiricism (e.g. the scientific method), eventually you'll find that not even primary sources can substitute firsthand experience. You (a primary source) may tell me that you are a real person with real experiences, but I have to believe that you're telling me the truth. That belief is a choice that you don't have a say in, and that particular belief would stand quite shakily on the fact that your mind incorrectly fabricates parts of your memories whenever you attempt recall them. Of course, I do believe such things - albeit cautiously, because it would be impossible to live and make decisions if I didn't play along. Most people do this automatically and take this for granted. With hate groups on the rise and society as it is right now, I think we should be more aware of this process.
Belief often asserts as true that which you do not have sufficient evidence for, and even if you do have evidence, you will never have access to 100% of the information contained within reality. In fact, your brain filters out more than 99% and operates on heuristic programming instead. A belief may sometimes be a close reflection of the truth, but belief =/= truth. There is only one thing that does not require belief to know, and that is that I feel like I exist. But that isn't even an assertion that I exist… I just feel my consciousness happening and all that comes with that - enough to allow myself to believe that "I am." But beyond me, in asserting that I exist, you'd have to believe me when I say that (or not). I'd certainly prefer you believe I'm a "real" person, but how do you know I'm not an AI? How do you "know" anything?
Solipsism as a belief (where one believes that only they exist) feels almost like a fugue state I see some people get into during depressive episodes and such. It's exclusionary, isolating, and overall not too great for one's mental health. Methodological solipsism on the other hand shuts most forms of belief down and puts you in the driver's seat. It is not a belief system nor a philosophy - it's a process based on empiricism and skepticism. It encourages you to be perceptive. The key thing to understand is that I'm not saying I'm the only thing that exists, nor am I saying that you do not exist or that I do not or should not engage in belief. What I'm saying is that I can only truly know myself, and all the other information I'm receiving from the thing I call "reality" is an incomplete picture that must be finished with varying measures of belief.
We can't even prove that reality is objectively "real." What does that even mean? If this is a simulation, we have no way of measuring the simulator from within, and even if we did, we'd have to believe the measurement tools. Everything just "is" and that's the best we can do right now. With that understanding, I can gauge just how much belief I'm comfortable with putting towards any given idea, and I am willing to allow such beliefs to be proven wrong upon receiving new or conflicting information.
More often than not, I would rather decline most forms of belief beyond the basics and simply keep my eyes and ears open; to forever remain a student of this universe. Some find it easy to see this as crippling, but it's not. This lays the foundation of how I see the world; it is not an endpoint. And as a result, I am impervious to religion, cults, and anything that bases its belief system on first- or secondhand experiences written down and retranslated hundreds of times over thousands of years - dogma. You can tell me that world works a certain way, that the universe is inherently good or that humans need a code of laws to govern their morality, but good and evil are entirely relative, based on little more than individual preference. You could dismiss that as a form of nihilism (and therefore another belief) but all of the alternatives can be dismissed just easily. Meaning, value, morality, and etc. are all shaped by the preferences of the observer. I choose not to pass judgement, simply see all that is, and respond to it if I desire.
In response to this, some have brought up the idea that since we seem to be like each other in form and function, it's reasonable to believe that others exist outside ourselves and therefore my point is moot. I agree, it is quite reasonable to believe that. I can't see inside your head so "believe" will always be the key word here until telepathy is invented. Perceiving precisely where belief lies and exercising the right to engage in or withdraw such beliefs is the point of methodological solipsism.
I've posted this in other places but I figured I'd share it with y'all too ^^
If you've got a couple minutes to read, hear me out.
If you run everything in your reality through the filter of empiricism (e.g. the scientific method), eventually you'll find that not even primary sources can substitute firsthand experience. You (a primary source) may tell me that you are a real person with real experiences, but I have to believe that you're telling me the truth. That belief is a choice that you don't have a say in, and that particular belief would stand quite shakily on the fact that your mind incorrectly fabricates parts of your memories whenever you attempt recall them. Of course, I do believe such things - albeit cautiously, because it would be impossible to live and make decisions if I didn't play along. Most people do this automatically and take this for granted. With hate groups on the rise and society as it is right now, I think we should be more aware of this process.
Belief often asserts as true that which you do not have sufficient evidence for, and even if you do have evidence, you will never have access to 100% of the information contained within reality. In fact, your brain filters out more than 99% and operates on heuristic programming instead. A belief may sometimes be a close reflection of the truth, but belief =/= truth. There is only one thing that does not require belief to know, and that is that I feel like I exist. But that isn't even an assertion that I exist… I just feel my consciousness happening and all that comes with that - enough to allow myself to believe that "I am." But beyond me, in asserting that I exist, you'd have to believe me when I say that (or not). I'd certainly prefer you believe I'm a "real" person, but how do you know I'm not an AI? How do you "know" anything?
Solipsism as a belief (where one believes that only they exist) feels almost like a fugue state I see some people get into during depressive episodes and such. It's exclusionary, isolating, and overall not too great for one's mental health. Methodological solipsism on the other hand shuts most forms of belief down and puts you in the driver's seat. It is not a belief system nor a philosophy - it's a process based on empiricism and skepticism. It encourages you to be perceptive. The key thing to understand is that I'm not saying I'm the only thing that exists, nor am I saying that you do not exist or that I do not or should not engage in belief. What I'm saying is that I can only truly know myself, and all the other information I'm receiving from the thing I call "reality" is an incomplete picture that must be finished with varying measures of belief.
We can't even prove that reality is objectively "real." What does that even mean? If this is a simulation, we have no way of measuring the simulator from within, and even if we did, we'd have to believe the measurement tools. Everything just "is" and that's the best we can do right now. With that understanding, I can gauge just how much belief I'm comfortable with putting towards any given idea, and I am willing to allow such beliefs to be proven wrong upon receiving new or conflicting information.
More often than not, I would rather decline most forms of belief beyond the basics and simply keep my eyes and ears open; to forever remain a student of this universe. Some find it easy to see this as crippling, but it's not. This lays the foundation of how I see the world; it is not an endpoint. And as a result, I am impervious to religion, cults, and anything that bases its belief system on first- or secondhand experiences written down and retranslated hundreds of times over thousands of years - dogma. You can tell me that world works a certain way, that the universe is inherently good or that humans need a code of laws to govern their morality, but good and evil are entirely relative, based on little more than individual preference. You could dismiss that as a form of nihilism (and therefore another belief) but all of the alternatives can be dismissed just easily. Meaning, value, morality, and etc. are all shaped by the preferences of the observer. I choose not to pass judgement, simply see all that is, and respond to it if I desire.
In response to this, some have brought up the idea that since we seem to be like each other in form and function, it's reasonable to believe that others exist outside ourselves and therefore my point is moot. I agree, it is quite reasonable to believe that. I can't see inside your head so "believe" will always be the key word here until telepathy is invented. Perceiving precisely where belief lies and exercising the right to engage in or withdraw such beliefs is the point of methodological solipsism.
I've posted this in other places but I figured I'd share it with y'all too ^^
*smiles...
Vix