It's All In My Head

When I was a kid, I was a part-time explorer of the philosophical world. I remember twirling one day until I got dizzy and fell to the ground, which prompted me to ask my father, "Why am I me?”

I recently learned that dizziness is not necessarily a precursor to an inquiring mind. A couple of days ago I thought I might base the plot of a future book on everything around the protagonist being imaginary.

Then, I learned that particular theory has a name: solipsism - which says while we know what’s going on inside our own heads, we can’t prove that the thoughts of others actually exist; only that we think they may actually exist.

If the external world doesn’t exist, that would make me very, very smart, because it means that all of Da Vinci’s inventions, theories and drawings, and stories by Charles Dickens, were actually created by my own mind. I am Victor Hugo, so to speak.

And if you tell me I’m wrong, I’ll just think it’s my own brain imagining you playing devil’s advocate.

Anyway, if you exist, I stumbled upon a great web page that includes a bunch of philosophical theories, including solipsism, that are food for thought.

Here’s the link.

As Mal told Johanna in Chronicles: The Library of Illumination, “Go forth and illuminate” (yourself).