noun

solipsism

SAH-lip-siz-um/ˈsɑːlɪpsɪzəm/

The view that only one's own mind is certain to exist.

Solipsism holds that only your own mind is certain to exist.

A contemplative East Asian adult's solid portrait surrounded by faint uncertain sketches of external objects, a philosophical visual metaphor for certainty only of one's own mind.

Etymology

solLatinalone

+ipsLatinself

+ismEnglishdoctrine or theory

“Self alone” names the central restriction: only one’s own mind is securely knowable. The term developed from an earlier sense of “egoism” into this philosophical position about the limits of knowledge.

In context

Curt Jaimungal254:25

So he's not saying, he's not adhering to solipsism. He admits that you have a conscious inner life, I do, and everybody else does.

Escaping the Illusion: Bernardo Kastrup Exposes Reality

More examples

The professor asks whether solipsism can ever be disproved.
Her essay challenges solipsism by defending our knowledge of other minds.
Doubting a news report does not commit you to solipsism.

Forms

solipsism

solipsist noun — A person who accepts this philosophical view.

Similar words

skepticism: Questions knowledge broadly without making one's own mind uniquely certain.
idealism: Treats reality as fundamentally mental, not necessarily limited to oneself.