That works for me.
But i have to confess that I never got the solipsism thing. In any of its iterations.
I am probably the wrong person to ask. I simply do not understand the idea. — Valentinus
Why would there be any more difficulty in "expanding the limits of one's world" than in having new experiences? — Janus
[1]A solipsist can never doubt, and live in a world full of certainty.
[2]Therefore, in the presence of doubt knowledge is possible.
[3]Hence, doubt is proof that an external world exists. — Wallows
I'm still not getting it. The dream horizon, just like the world horizon, can always be expanded, which in the dream context would be "expanding the limits of one's (dream) world" or having experience one has never had before. — Janus
Now, how can a solipsist doubt if they live in a 'world' where everything is the same as the self? — Wallows
2) The question here is what is "knowledge". I assumed it to be something along the lines of "the improvement of certainty". — CaZaNOx
To prevent this you would have to assume something along the lines that there is a net gain over time. I don't see any basis for that. — CaZaNOx
I don't see/understand how the external world enters into this at all. Lets say the Self increases knowledge there is no reason why a solipsist coukdn't just call this an improvement of the knowledge of the Self by the Self (since everything in this view is part of the self). Therefore gaining knowledge/certainty does not necessarily refer to an increase of knowledge of an external world and can not prove the existence of an external world. — CaZaNOx
If everything is the self and the solipsist can have new experiences, then she has not experienced all of her self in which case she is never omniscient and so there would be room for doubt, no? — Janus
I don't think that the solipsist can experience genuinely new experiences. The boundary between doubt and certainty is rather explicit for a solipsist, which I assume you don't agree with here? — Wallows
Can you explain what you mean by the boundary between doubt and certainty being "rather explicit for a solipsist"? I mean if the world was nothing but you, and you knew yourself exhaustively, there would be nothing but certainty, would there? — Janus
Or do you think it would be possible, assuming that the world is nothing but you, that there could be any doubt at all, in that case, that the world is nothing but yourself? — Janus
Or do you think it would be possible, assuming that the world is nothing but you, that there could be any doubt at all, in that case, that the world is nothing but yourself? — Janus
What do you mean? — Wallows
The world of the solipsist is one and the same with the self of the solipsist. What does this mean? It means that doubt cannot arise, because the world of the solipsist is full of certainty. To present this issue another way, epistemologically the solipsist is hermetically sealed off from anything beyond what constitutes their 'world'. — Wallows
This can be gotten around by defining solipsism a certain way. — Marchesk
First of all, the self is just another experience. — Marchesk
For the solipsist, all that exists is the experiences a solipsist has. — Marchesk
There is no hidden self generating the experiences of a world. — Marchesk
In addition, doubt is just one more kind of experience. — Marchesk
Also, the solipsist can doubt because they do have experiences of what appears to be an external world full of other people. — Marchesk
Remember that solipsism is a philosophical position that only comes about through inquiry and taking skepticism to its logical conclusion. Nobody is a solipsist by default. — Marchesk
As for new knowledge, it's just another experience. The question is why is there a stream of experiences if nothing is causing them? There's no more answer to that than why anything exists. — Marchesk
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