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According to science this is what happens to brain under anesthesia:

Anesthetic drugs cause brain circuits to change their oscillation patterns in particular ways, thereby preventing neurons in different brain regions from communicating with each other. The result is a loss of consciousness—an unnatural state that he compares to a “reversible coma”—that differs from sleep.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/anesthesia-brain#:~:text=patients%20waken%20quickly.-,Anesthetic%20drugs%20cause%20brain%20circuits%20to%20change%20their%20oscillation%20patterns,%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94that%20differs%20from%20sleep.

Thus, anesthetics seem to cause unconsciousness when they block the brain's ability to integrate information

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2743249/

they safely lose consciousness while their bodies are probed and cut open.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3489z/this-is-what-happens-to-your-brain-during-anesthesia

With these significant findings. If Solipsist's mind is plugged out under anesthesia for a while, does it disprove solipsism? Or at least proves that he is not the real one? since every other thing will continue to exist during the procedure.

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  • According to science, solipsism is false anyway. So what difference does it make what it has to say about anesthesia specifically? Solipsists will deny or reinterpret the findings and the premises upon which they are based, if necessary. You can equally ask whether falling asleep disproves solipsism. And no, it doesn't and nothing will, by its own standards, it is designed to be unfalsifiable. The mind does not have to monitor itself all the time, etc. By other standards, it can be disproved easily, but that would beg the question.
    – Conifold
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:50
  • @Conifold the solipsist person would be refuted in this case, since our existance would be a solid proof.
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:53
  • What is "this case"? And regardless, existence of mind's creations during sleep or other unconscious states proves nothing relevant under their interpretation.
    – Conifold
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:57
  • @Conifold What if he dies or he is in vegetative state and you continue to exist. Does it disprove the solipsist's argument because you continue to exist?
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 21:02
  • No, they'll just say that their mind transforms upon "death" and loses memory of its previous activities. Or that you will cease to exist with them, it is not like you can disprove it to them when they are gone.
    – Conifold
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 21:07

3 Answers 3

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You are missing the point. If I believed in sophism (I don't) I could simply say that all of the other people in the hospital, including the anaesthetist, are figments of my imagination. You could argue against me, but I could consider you and your arguments to be figments of my imagination too. Solipsism to my mind, and I am sure to yours too, in one sense seems claptrap, but it makes the important point that you cannot be absolutely sure of anything. In principle at least, everything could be an utterly convincing figment of your imagination, and if it were, you would not be able to tell. Of course, there are countless common sense reasons to consider that solipsism is tosh. For instance, suppose a computer were to perform an arithmetical task in a fraction of a second that would take me hours long-hand- how could I explain how my brain could imagine the right answer so quickly? But the solipsist could say that the limitations of my brain, and even my brain itself, are figments of my imagination, so there is no evading the claim in principle however ludicrous and implausible it is.

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Solipsism does not say everything we experience could be taking place in the mind of one of the 8 billion people on Earth.

It says everything you experience (including my existence) could be taking place in your mind.

Or, from my perspective, everything I experience (including your existence) could be taking place in my mind.

It's an idea that only applies to oneself.

So if anyone besides you is put under anesthesia, that could just be you imagining that that person exists and they lose consciousness. And if you're put under anesthesia, you could just have imagined what happened leading up to that, and then your imagination might just have fast-forwarded the world you imagine for a few hours to get to the point where you "wake up" (when in reality that might've just been some uninterrupted experience inside your mind).

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  • so do you continue to exist while solpist is under anesthesia? Yes or No? @NotThatGuy
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 13, 2023 at 1:46
  • What happens he is stuck in vegetative state? @NotThatGuy
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 13, 2023 at 1:51
  • @Wiseman many of your comments point to you not understanding what NotThatGuy actually said: "It's an idea that only applies to oneself."
    – TKoL
    Commented Jan 12 at 11:52
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If I were to argue for Solipsism, you couldn't talk me out of it by putting me under for a while. From my perspective, there isn't a world continuing as normal while I am unconscious. The world simply undergoes some instantaneous change.

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  • But other minds would be sure that a) You are a lier b) You are debunked as a solipsist.
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:48
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    @Wiseman What other minds?
    – Arno
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:56
  • Other beings, humans same in the hospital with solipsist for example.
    – Wiseman
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 20:59

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