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solipsism - 6 dictionary results

sol⋅ip⋅sism

  [sol-ip-siz-uhm]
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–noun
1. Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.
Origin:
1880–85; sol(i)- 1 + L ips(e) self + -ism

Related forms:
sol⋅ip⋅sis⋅mal, adjective
sol⋅ip⋅sist, noun, adjective
sol⋅ip⋅sis⋅tic  [sol-ip-sis-tik] , adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sol·ip·sism   (sŏl'ĭp-sĭz'əm, sō'lĭp-)   
n.   Philosophy
  1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
  2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.

[Latin sōlus, alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots + Latin ipse, self + -ism.]
sol'ip·sist n., sol'ip·sis'tic adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Solipsism

So*lip"sism\, n. [L. solus alone + ipse self.]

1. (Ethics) Egotism. --Krauth-Fleming.

2. (Metaph.) Egoism. --Krauth-Fleming.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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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.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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solipsism 
1874, coined from L. solus "alone" + ipse "self." The view or theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing that is real.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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solipsism

in philosophy, formerly, moral egoism (as used in the writings of Immanuel Kant), but now, in an epistemological sense, the extreme form of subjective idealism that denies that the human mind has any valid ground for believing in the existence of anything but itself. The British idealist F.H. Bradley, in Appearance and Reality (1897), characterized the solipsistic view as follows: "I cannot transcend experience, and experience is my experience. From this it follows that nothing beyond myself exists; for what is experience is its (the self 's) states."

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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