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Full Idea
No logical absurdity results from the hypothesis that the world consists of myself and my thoughts and feelings and sensations, and that everything else is mere fancy.
Gist of Idea
It is not illogical to think that only myself and my mental events exist
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 2)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.10
A Reaction
The only real attempt to meet this challenge is Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument, which tried to show that it would be a logical impossibility to speak a language if there were no other minds. Personally, I am with Russell.
Related Idea
Idea 23497 Solipsism is correct, but can only be shown, not said, by the limits of my personal language [Wittgenstein]
| 2257 | I myself could be the author of all these self-delusions [Descartes] |
| 23661 | We are only aware of other beings through our senses; without that, we are alone in the universe [Reid] |
| 6932 | Ideas arise through communication, and reason is reached through community [Feuerbach] |
| 5362 | It is not illogical to think that only myself and my mental events exist [Russell] |
| 23503 | Strict solipsism is pure realism, with the self as a mere point in surrounding reality [Wittgenstein] |
| 2777 | Extreme solipsism only concerns current experience, but it might include past and future [Dancy,J] |
| 21227 | The Cogito demands a bridge to the world, and ends in isolating the ego [Velarde-Mayol] |
| 10357 | Methodological Solipsism assumes all ideas could be derived from one mind [Kusch] |