Baumarius

I decided to see what Reddit had to say about solipsism today and was rather unsurprised to see a number of posts claiming that it's a joke, it's unsustainable, that "nothing exists," and etc. On the surface it's easy to see as exclusionary and an ultimately worthless philosophy - I once did as well. Allow me to introduce you to methodological solipsism. As someone who was raised in a cult who can no longer take belief for granted, I assure you it is neither a joke nor a waste of time.

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 belief stands 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.

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. 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 in asserting that I exist, then you'd have to believe me too (or not). I'd certainly prefer you believe I'm a real person, but how do you know I'm not an AI?

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. 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" - and if this is a simulation, we have no way of measuring the simulator from within. 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. In doing so, I have immeasurably increased my capacity for learning.

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 - anything that bases its belief system on dogma or far reaching assertions that the world works a certain way. You can tell me 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. I choose not to pass judgement. Meaning, value, morality, and etc. are all shaped by the preferences of the observer.

Edit: In response to this post 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. 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.