Don't ask the professionals
Solipsism- Do you know what it means?
Solipsism is the most misunderstood and misrepresented concept in the history of philosophy.
(Philosophy is a catalogue of misunderstandings that generate many interesting questions.)
Solipsism has been variously described as incoherent, meaningless, absurd, ethically repugnant, sociopathic and bullshit that no sane person would ever subscribe to. In addition there have been no “Great Philosophers” who have espoused solipsism, so it might be expected that there would be little point in discussing it. Further to that, it is described as a “logically irrefutable” notion, a wrong idea framed in such a way that you cannot prove it wrong.
Rather bizarrely, presumably to provide more avenues of denigration, the professional philosophy industry have variously subdivided this topic they seemingly love to hate into sub-categories:-
Metaphysical Solipsism, Epistemological Solipsism, Ontological Solipsism, Methodological Solipsism, Bullshitological Solipsism...
OK, that last one isn't an acknowledged “ism” and Ontological Solipsism doesn't have its own wikipedia page at the time of writing but someone is likely preparing one.
Solipsism has also been linked with schizophrenia and mental health issues so taking up the challenge of admitting to having solipsist tendencies may not be the wisest of moves, but here goes.
According to the lexicographers the word derives from the Latin:-
solus (alone) and ipes ( self)
This is where it all quickly goes wrong. Does solipsism mean to be alone with yourself? Alone as yourself? There is only yourself? Or perhaps I should say “alone with self”, “alone as self” and there is “only self”, because “self” and “yourself” are not strictly interchangeable terms.
There is normally the most superficial, trivial, and thoughtless assumptions behind most criticism of solipsism, and the majority spend most of their efforts criticising their own presupposed assumptions without ever noticing that they are not criticising solipsism per se, but demonstrating their own lack of understanding of the topic. (Asking your dictionary for help in understanding solipsism, will not provide much by way of a meaningful definition- more on that later.)
Solipsism is not- a theory that the self is all that can be known to exist, narcissistic, self-indulgent, a purveyor of omnipotence, or isolationist, to name just a few muddled notions.
They are concepts arising from the myriad hidden assumptions we all tend not to notice lie behind our thinking, and influenced by dictionary definitions based on presumptions rather than acquired knowledge.
Solipsism is- A recognition of unity, albeit only a partial recognition on first encounter.
So the question is what does the phrase “A recognition of unity” mean, and how does it relate to the title at the top of this page- Solipsism, Before and After Death.