Friday, May 3, 2019

How Logic's Existence Refutes Solipsism

Solipsism is almost inevitably treated by laypeople and academic philosophers alike as if its epistemological and metaphysical variations cannot be refuted.  It is indeed true that many people do not know how to falsify it in full, but this does not mean that the refutation is not simple.  It is entirely possible to prove the existence of matter [1], though doing so is more complex and challenging than it might seem: logic might be simple, but the information one must sort through using logic is often vast.  However, no one needs to go so far as to actually demonstrate the existence of even a single physical thing to disprove all forms of solipsism.

The laws of logic, which encompass every axiom and every conclusion that follows from its premises, exist in the complete absence of all other things.  Since the nonexistence of logic relies on a contradiction that actually necessitates the existence of logic, it is impossible for logic to not exist (for instance, truth, which is a function of logic, cannot not exist, as the absence of truth is still a truth).  If logic must exist without regard to anything else, then it must exist outside of and independent of my mind.  Only a very small number of people are likely to ever discover how logic itself refutes solipsism, of course, but this refutation of solipsism is nonetheless easier for many to discover on their own than proving the existence of matter is.  In actuality, however, the vast majority of people who are not skeptical about the existence of matter mistakenly think logic is dependent on some other thing.

The existence of logic, though, cannot refute solipsism if it hinges on something other than itself, as an example clarifies.  If logic depended on, say, God for its own existence (though it is utterly impossible for it to depend on anything other than itself), this would not establish that logic exists independent of my own mind.  Although it seems unlikely, the uncaused cause and my mind might be one and the same, which would mean--according to this inept argument--that logic still does not exist outside of my mind.  In other words, if logic depended on something other than my mind for its existence, I could not even know if my mind is ultimately synonymous with that very thing, which means the entire argument collapses based upon the assumption that the two are distinct.

Theists who argue for a "divine solipsism" where nothing exists outside of or without the mind of God--which is exactly what the metaphysics of almost every historical and current Christian reduces down to--cannot consistently argue against any other kind of solipsism.  An uncaused cause exists, and so does my mind, as long as I perceive anything at all; there is still no proof that I am not responsible for creating the physical world and then banishing my memories of doing so.  Theism is logically necessary, but this neither means that to prove theism is to prove the existence of another mind nor that God can create logic itself.

Once a person realizes that God exists and that logic exists independent of God (or matter or any other distinct existent), it becomes clear that logic is even more metaphysically significant and foundational than God.  Without God, there could be no creation, but without logic, there could be no God (as God could not even be God apart from the law of identity).  This in no way trivializes the fact that matter and contingent minds depend on God for their own existence, but it does affirm that logic is the ultimate metaphysical existent.

Oftentimes, the most significant truths have yet to even be introduced to public consciousness.  Despite the fact that it resolves every foundational metaphysical or epistemological issue in philosophy [2], logic's necessary existence in the absence of everything else continues to be overlooked or unrealized.  Thankfully, reason can illuminate truths about itself that have been denied, ignored, or undiscovered throughout the entire history of academic philosophy.  All one needs to do to understand this is simply use reason.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/dreams-and-consciousness.html

[2].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-ramifications-of-axioms.html

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