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The human mind exhibits a fascinating ability of self-reflection. There was a period in my life when I was seriously contemplating the philosophically central issue of "knowledge" and the meaning of "knowing". Solipsism obviously is the simple, safe and ironic answer to the questions raised by the latter. Solipsism is however quite a limited weltanschauung in the sense that it deals mainly with the nature of actions, rather than their consequenses. Modern quantum mechanics also tells a lot about the nature of actions, once one accepts the notion of a world existing externally to the mind. Note that this does not mean that it would exist independently of mind! Most people having read this far could refer to the classical example of Schrödinger's cat for recapitulation of this matter. Regarding "knowledge" I personally believe that the correlation between the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and Kant's understanding of how knowledge is acquired cannot be too much emphasized. I also find Kant's categorical imperative very appealing when it comes to evaluating action and consequenses of action. It might be that I am naive in my subscription to Kantean weltanshauung, but please do enlight me if you have references to works showing any serious problems with one or the other! |
Last update 2002-12-25 by Janne Wallenius |
