The big idea: Solipsism pictures you as a lonely mind guessing whether anyone else is out there. But look at an ordinary moment — sharing a joke, following a pointing finger, queuing for a bus.
No guessing needed: You're not guessing about other minds at all. You're already inside a shared world with them, taking each other for granted.
That shared world is what philosophers call intersubjectivity. This micro is the reply to solipsism from the other direction: not proving others exist, but noticing we were always with them.
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One school of thought made this its central claim by describing experience carefully, from the inside.
Husserl and Merleau-Ponty: the world comes pre-shared: Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty did phenomenology. Their finding: your world never shows up as private.
How the world shows up
- A cup shows up as 'a cup anyone could pick up'
- Words show up as 'words others also understand'
- Even alone in a room, the world is soaked in other people
We read each other through the body: Merleau-Ponty added that we read each other through the body — you feel a friend's sadness in their slumped shoulders before a single word. We're not sealed minds guessing about each other; we're always already among others.
Checkpoint — phenomenology: In one line: describe experience honestly and you find you're always already among others — the world comes pre-shared. Hold that — the next thinker asks HOW you meet the others in that shared world.
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If we share one world, everything turns on how we treat the people in it.
Buber: I–Thou vs I–It: Martin Buber said there are two ways to relate to another person.
{{I–It|treating another person as an object — a thing you use or size up}}
- You treat them as a thing
- The cashier who's just 'the queue moving'
- A person you size up for what they can do for you
- The barista as an 'It' (a coffee-dispenser)
{{I–Thou|meeting another person fully as a 'you', not a thing}}
- You meet them fully as a you
- Really present, one person to another
- The same barista as a 'Thou' (a person you truly greet)
Buber's claim: For Buber, you only become a full self in genuine I–Thou meetings.
Go further — higher-level insight: See how these two link up. Fact plus choice is a strong essay shape — one describes our situation, the other tells us what to do in it.
Phenomenology: a fact
- The shared world is a fact
- We're already among others
Buber: a choice
- Given that others are there, it's a choice
- Do you meet them as a Thou or reduce them to an It?
Checkpoint — Buber: In one line: you can treat a person as an It (a thing) or meet them as a Thou (a you) — and only real Thou-meetings make you a full self.