(May 2, 2015 at 3:21 am)robvalue Wrote: Nothing exists... so we shouldn't talk about anything except the fact nothing exists? I have no idea what this means. If nothing exists, no one is talking about anything, so why should it concern you?
What is "real" is not a trivial matter to define. Whatever "I" am, I'm experiencing something. That is as much as I can be certain of. Whether or not what I'm experiencing is "real" from any other point of view, it is real to me. So it matters to me. If I don't exist and neither does what I think I'm experiencing, then you're not there to tell me I'm wrong, nor does it matter that a non-existent person is wrong about a non-existent reality. I'm argueing with a figment of my imagination right now if so. Maybe I am, but it's not helpful to assume that I am.
You seem to be addressing solipsism. I agree that to get past it, we need certain base assumptions. You may not agree with those assumptions, that's fine. But you cannot use the position of solipsism to make any other point at all, because you've just said nothing is real or reliable. Either we all agree, for the sake of argument, that this reality is somehow real and we can know stuff about it, or there is no further conversation to be had.
If that's your point and you're just telling us to stop talking, then I'm afraid you are doomed to failure.
The position I am elucidating is a non-sollipsist, non-objectivistic anti-realist position. As you correctly note, sollipsism is a manifestly inadequate response. Accepting the non-self position advocated by Buddhism, Humean philosophy and cognitive science, one cannot infer that the hypothesized non-existence of the "outside" world would entail the existence of an inner self. As to where this leaves discourse, I should think that there is no problem with speaking, provided that one recognize the greater value of silence. Silence is golden. Negative universalism (ontological antinomianism) by no means implies that we should not deal with transient problems, merely that we must take note of their inherent ungroundedness and contingency.
