Scepticism about the eternal world is difficult, if not impossible, to refute. Unless one is an idealist, believing that all things are actually mental, that they are ideas, and that there's no such thing as matter, the generally held view is that objects would still exist if there were no observers.
No, because our subjective experience is perfectly logically compatible with the view that everything we perceive is just a dream. Although, Bertrand Russell I think argues that the regular behaviour of what we perceive to be other people, and other objects, is more explicable by our common sense view than by solipsism, or some other sceptical view. A cat gets hungry at regular times, which is just what we'd expect if it had a mental life like ours. I've probably simplified the argument a little, but that's the gist, I think. Russell admits that it's not a particularly strong argument, but it's an argument nonetheless.
Quote:The subject really does exist subjectively to other subjects even when it itself is unconscious, but that's still a matter of subjectivity so is it really evidence that if there were no subjects there would still be objects (as in, objects separate to subjects)? Is there valid induction there or not?
No, because our subjective experience is perfectly logically compatible with the view that everything we perceive is just a dream. Although, Bertrand Russell I think argues that the regular behaviour of what we perceive to be other people, and other objects, is more explicable by our common sense view than by solipsism, or some other sceptical view. A cat gets hungry at regular times, which is just what we'd expect if it had a mental life like ours. I've probably simplified the argument a little, but that's the gist, I think. Russell admits that it's not a particularly strong argument, but it's an argument nonetheless.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
