Guybrush

Thanks for your wannabe-pseudo-intellectual regurgitation.

TyrantSong, I think you need to play less Mage : The Ascension I think it's an interesting idea that things would exist outside of our minds - in the real world - because they are believed in, but I consider the idea to be mumbo jumbo along the lines of other humorous ponderings like maybe we're actually aliens dreaming we're human. It's a popular idea in fantasy litterature and gaming of course but little else I think.

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anticipation

Not really, solipsism has been around since the sophists. Both Greek philosopher Gorgias and Descartes explored the idea that nothing but our minds exist.

Guybrush

Anticipation, maybe you should read TyrantSong's post which my own was a reply to. The way I read it, it's not about solipsism, it's about people's minds creating something which is real in an external sense, not just in your mind.

TyrantSong suggested humans might be capable of creating God. Solipsism wasn't mentioned.

edit :

Does that look like I'm responding to a post about solipsism?

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LoathsomePete

Don't be hating on Mage: The Ascension buster! next to Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Wraith: The Oblivion it was the best book in the series.

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Guybrush

Oh, no hatin' - all the old WW games have been important in my "education". My favourite is actually Changeling Wraith was, to me, the most confusing one by far.

In case Anticipation doesn't know Mage, it's a tabletop roleplaying game (books and dice) and it's setting is a world much like our own where reality is formed by people's beliefs. Belief creates gods, weird beings, other worlds and makes everyday magic like microwave ovens work.

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anticipation

sounds like solipsism to me, i was just saying that these concepts aren't necessarily humorous ponderings just because sci-fi writers explore them.

Guybrush

Solipsism speculates that since every experience is subjective, the only thing one can be somewhat certain of is the self. From that you could get ideas like maybe reality is something you are creating in your mind and I and everything else are just figments of your imagination.

Those topics didn't come up in either of our posts so I thought your reply somewhat irrelevant and misguided.

I never wrote solipsism was a humorous pondering so then you're defending something that didn't come up. I do think the pursuit of solipsisistic ideas are futile because you'll never know and I think it's ridiculously egocentric. As for what TyrantSong actually mentioned, I think the idea that belief shapes "the real" reality to be humorous partly because it's so popular in fiction (many roleplaying games, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett f.ex) - which is why I referred to a game in the first place .. it being a genuine hypothesis or not has with philosophers in any age or time has little bearing on that.

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anticipation

I just felt that by associating the idea that maybe we're aliens and are dreaming of a human reality with whatever nonsense the OP was postulating you were trivializing the subjectivity of life. I believe that solipsism is a valid and worthwhile ideology, so I was merely trying to defend it. Seems like a difference of beliefs and interpretation on my part, no harm done.