252 HUMANISM xiv 



may be Solipsisms at heart, though they do not avow this 

 in their behaviour. 



But what is Solipsism ? It may best be defined 

 perhaps as the doctrine that all existence is experience, 

 and that there is only one experient. The Solipsist 

 thinks that he is the one. 



Now if this is thought out, it will be seen that very 

 many sorts of philosophers are ultimately solipsists or 

 as good as solipsists. When they do not themselves see 

 this, they may fitly be called crypto-solipsists. Crypto- 

 solipsism may also be ascribed to any view which needs 

 Solipsism for its logical completion, and so the various 

 sorts of Solipsism add up to a formidable total. 



1. That the absolute idealist is a solipsist need only 

 be barely stated. For the matter has been threshed out 

 elsewhere. 1 He is a solipsist because he believes that the 

 Absolute is the sole experient, and that he is himself the 

 incarnate Absolute. A good many absolute idealists, 

 moreover, see this, and are proud of being the Absolute. 2 

 But it is needless to linger over this distressing sort of 

 philosophic megalomania, as its nature is so clear. 



2. Subjective idealists are classed as solipsists, 

 almost by acclamation ; and yet this attribution seems 

 in their case far more disputable. For a good many of 

 them are also charged with pluralism, and it is hard to 

 see how one can be both a pluralist and a solipsist. 

 Why moreover should not Berkeley s pluralistic universe 

 of Spirits be taken by us as seriously as it was intended ? 

 It may have been a mistaken compliment to the Deity 

 to impose on him the duty of lurking behind every 

 particle of matter, but this is no reason for denying 

 the communion of spiritual beings. The only difficulty 

 Berkeley s system here presents is that of explaining how 

 the individual comes to suspect a transcendent cause 



1 Cp. Studies in Humanism, Essay x. 



2 We learn however from one answer that when the writer (under ether) 

 dreamt that he was the Absolute and that in fact Solipsism was true, he felt 

 very lonely and miserable. Could one be sure of this, it would avenge on the 

 Absolute its callous indifference towards the sufferings of the world. 



