Solipsism
There are many interesting and yet contentious theories of mind that exist in the society. According to (Shingu, 2014), solipsism is regarded as one of the most interesting theories of mind today since it is very difficult to disapprove its ideologies. Gorgias of Leontini, who is regarded as the father of solipsism, stated that one’s mental state is all that can be known to exist. This idealism automatically suggests that the knowledge and the awareness of anything outside one’s mind are unjustified. According to Shingu (2014), this stand purely opposes the concepts of Physicalism, Materialism, and Objectivism, which are of the perception that matter is the only thing that can be truly proven to be in existence.
Scholars conduct research or investigations to seek or revise ideologies, facts, principles and their applications among other aspects. This process is usually laborious as one aims to establish the truth of a theory. According to Watson (2014), assent to solipsism might affect a researcher’s ability to evaluate research. He argues that; “the solipsism principle is based on the notion that the whole reality of the external world and even the people we see are just representations to oneself, and that they have no independent existence, and they might not even exist.” With such a notion, a solipsist researcher may find no need for investing valuable time in his/her own reality trying to prove something that might not even be in existence.
Watson (2014) is of the perception that a solipsist is incapable of attaching any meaning to the hypothesis that indeed there might be thoughts, sensations and experiences other than his own. For instance, he can only decipher and understand the word “fear” to mean “my fear.” However, Richardson (1999) is of the perception that one’s’ ability to evaluate research may be affected by the rejection of solipsism. They argue that if a researcher is not willing to invest valuable time to try and understand a theory or idealism, he/she is not in a position to prove it to be either true or false. Therefore, if the principle of solipsism was to be rejected altogether, a researcher may not be in a position to evaluate research because no one can conclude or argue to the existence of something outside their mental states (Shingu, 2014). Watson (1999) finds that solipsism is essential to evaluating research because it compels researchers to conducting thorough investigations into different aspects of an ideology and prove that they really do exist outside their own mental states.
References
Richardson, J. T. (1999). The concepts and methods of phenomenographic research. Review of Educational research, 69(1), 53-82.
Shingu, K. (2014). Solipsism. In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 1826-1828). Springer New York.
Watson, R. A. (2014). Solipsism: The Ultimate Empirical Theory of Human Existence.
