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All 8 Flashcards — Solipsism
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Question
Solipsism?
Answer
The view that only your own mind is certain to exist; every other mind is a guess you can't confirm.
Question
Why can't solipsism be disproved?
Answer
You only ever meet the outside of others — a face, words, behaviour — never their inner feeling, so you can't check.
Question
Why can't solipsism be lived?
Answer
The moment you love, grieve or apologise, you treat other minds as completely real — so no one truly believes it.
Question
The robot worry?
Answer
A perfect robot could wince and cry with nothing inside, so behaviour alone never proves a mind is there.
Question
De Beauvoir's reply to solipsism?
Answer
She rejects the sealed-off lonely self it assumes: we don't start alone and prove others; we start among them.
Question
The clever move against solipsism?
Answer
Don't try to prove other minds — show the question is badly framed: you were with others all along.
Question
Solipsism in one line?
Answer
Unbeatable in theory, impossible in practice, and built on a lonely self that never existed.
Question
What solipsism does NOT claim?
Answer
Not that others definitely don't exist — only that your own mind is the one thing you can be certain of.
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Topic 1.2 hub
The self and the other
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