Solipsism is the idea that only your own self is sure to exist, that
the world outside of yourself is only known to you through your senses;
it is the idea that only you exist, and that the world is a figment of
your perception. This raises some interesting questions: how do you
differentiate reality from a fantasy created by false senses, colors,
smells, sounds, textures, phantom feelings fabricated by your brain, a
virtual reality that is your only reality? How do you know without a
doubt that the warm sun on your skin, the smell of freshly mowed grass,
the sound of birds chirping in the early light of dawn are real? Your
world is generated by your senses, your reality is woven from the
information you get from your senses. The truth is, there is no way to
prove that your world is real, that you are not just in a dream, a
fantasy, trapped in a world fabricated by your subconscious. You could
be only a brain suspended in a liquid-filled tube, connected to
electrodes feeding you false sensory input to create a
computer-generated world, perfectly convincing to you; you would not
know better, you would be only a brain in a jar.
A dilemma is now present: if the world around you is not real, the
landscape and people just phantoms in your fake world, what is morality
to you? You could kill a man, rob a bank, but how would that
matter? Any action of yours should not have any real effects, because you
inhabit a world only known to you, the only thing you can trust to be
real yourself. You could do anything without consequence, without fear of retribution, or so it
would seem. At the same time, you could be paranoid and analyzing the
situation too deeply and only be acting on a false notion, and you truly
are living in a real world, filled with real people. After all, could
not every person make the same argument that his or her self is the only
real one? It is much less maddening to accept that you are not the only
real person in this world. But there will remain a quiet reminder, a
shadow of a doubt, a small voice in the back of your head asking you,
“How do you know for sure?”
