solipsism
[sol-ip-siz-uh m]
- Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
- extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.
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Origin of solipsism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for solipsism
Contemporary Examples
But in the age of the iPod, where solipsism has been made sophisticated, they are more right than anyone ever imagined.
Of course, when an entire throng is trying to rise above itself, an epidemic of free-form vulgarity and solipsism ensues.
Historical Examples
The philosophic system becomes a solipsism, a pure lyric expression of the appetites of human nature.
Creative IntelligenceJohn Dewey, Addison W. Moore, Harold Chapman Brown, George H. Mead, Boyd H. Bode, Henry Waldgrave, Stuart James, Hayden Tufts, Horace M. Kallen
This theory is also called Subjective Idealism or Solipsism.
The New Gresham EncyclopediaVarious
I realize now that I may have been falling into the trap of solipsism, “who watches the quad,” et cetera, type of thing.
On Handling the DataM. I. Mayfield
Thus idealists are wedded to solipsism irrevocably; and it is a happy marriage, only the name of the lady has to be changed.
Winds Of DoctrineGeorge Santayana
solipsism
- philosophy the extreme form of scepticism which denies the possibility of any knowledge other than of one's own existence
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Word Origin
C19: from Latin sōlus alone + ipse self
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for solipsism
n.
1871, coined from Latin solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)) + ipse "self." The view or theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing that is real. "The identification of one's self with the Absolute is not generally intended, but the denial of there being really anybody else" [Century Dictionary].
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
solipsism
[(sol-uhp-siz-uhm, soh-luhp-siz-uhm)]
The belief that all reality is just one's own imagining of reality, and that one's self is the only thing that exists.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.