h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It will make your argument go all hideous.

Solipsim is a derogatory word meaning 'bad'.

hmm? You've lost me...

Solipsism is normally slagged off as being a bad idea - but there's no other word to describe the philosophy, so I guess one has to make do... kinda like Wiccans, I guess.

Hi there Lucinda

Sorry I wasn't able to expand earlier; I was being harried by brokers; Euuurgh nasty off my leg brute and all that! How I view Occams Razor is 'it is OK to make assumptions'. It doesn't offer any actual proof. And in this instance, I feel I have to be a good Hume-worshipper; viz: you can be sure of two things at least; your own existence, and the existence of sense data. As to the relative complexity of what generated these sense data (either the universe or the 'deceiving demon' of Muster Descartes), the only safe thing to do is to put one's shoulders up and shrug. You really have no way of knowing.

True - S. is slagged off. It seems to me that it is a very infertile position to hold, in that assuming you are the only consciousness in the whole world does not give rise to interesting philosophy. For instance, to refer to an entry of a few days ago, an argument for the validity of the Turing test is that to disagree is solipsitic given one's impressions of other people. It is not the sort of position that one wants to find oneself in without premeditation.

Wiccans are those odd bods aren't they? I write software for stockbrokers so I don't really feel entitled to comment.

Keepin it real in E17

BB

ahh - brokers...

Occam's Razor is a metatheory - of course it doesn't offer any proof. All it offers is that, in general, it seems to choose theories which are more likely to make accurate testable predictions. Which becomes at best dubious when you slice out the essence of what those predictions are made on.

Solipsism, for me, is important as something to be aware of, primarily so you can justify not believing in it. It's not something I would want people to believe in...