AS and Nihilism/Solipsism: Correlation?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been sort of mulling it over a little, and a thought has occurred to me. I decided the best place to discuss it would be here.

My question here is, do you suppose that Asperger's syndrome could be inherently linked in some way to inclination toward nihilism and/or solipsism? I wonder about the correlation, because Aspies seem to be a subset of people among whom social frustration and isolation are fairly common experiences, and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a higher incidence of nihilism among them as a result. When one is denied meaningful social interactions, or comes to see himself or herself as living outside of the standard social conventions (much as Aspies often see themselves as alienated from NT conventions), it doesn't seem to me like much of a logical leap that that person would begin questioning the validity and meaning of the very constructs of the society (or even the whole world or universe) from which he or she is outcast. I think a good example of that is Meursault from Albert Camus's The Stranger. Likewise, I imagine that if an Aspie finds himself or herself alienated or isolated from people for long enough, solipsism might seem like an appealing or especially appropriate worldview. I hear all the time how NTs commonly interpret our behavior as "self-absorbed"-- and solipsism is the most extreme form of self-absorption of which I can think.

So what does everyone here think? In your experience, have you found either philosophy particularly appealing? Or do you have some other response to them?

I dont think we have any way of knowing what other people think about solipsism!

And I dont see the purpose of asking about nihilism!

Well, I'm an existentialist which is closely related to nihilism but much more optimistic. Jean-Paul Sartre, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus (who you mentioned), Martin Heidegger, the sort. Oh, and it is NOT a gloomy philosophy no matter what some people tell you. Sartre listed it as an optimistic philosophy and its ultimate message is to be an individual and to take responsibility for your actions because you are free and independent!

Moral Nihilist
Existential Nihilist
-
Epistemological Solipsism and Mathematical Intuitionism
Metaphysical Solipsism

One of my favorite books which includes a chapter on solipsism is "Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits" by Bertrand Russell. I don't agree with it much on technicalities, but it is enlightening on the reasoning and philosophy involved.

I like radical Skinnerian Behaviourism much more, as effective application is the most easily accomplished, and satisfies Ockham's razor the best with the phrase "beyond freedom an dignity". It is in many ways the very inverse of solipsism, as the external environment created me and gave me the knowledge of myself (that's why the "me" uses mainly English, base-10, etc. in "thinking").

I prefer the fictional works of Dostovesky in dealing with Nihilism, as the levels of his address to Nihilism matches the characteristics of the "epileptic personality" that I have much in common with from a lifetime of epilepsy.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and epilepsy have a major intersection, with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) being a very common form of epilepsy involved. TLE often involves the "Geschwind Syndrome" of emotional/personality characteristics which intersect strongly with Nihilism (there's major disagreement involving experts, but most are on obfuscating technicalities), while ASD is more influencing to the levels of social and emotional interactions with other individuals which matches more closely the characteizations of Solipsism, though Solipsism and Nihilism intersects in many ways.

A very rough clue is books-dot-google for "temporal lobe epilepsy solipsism" giving 36 results.
"temporal lobe epilepsy nihilism" giving 170 results
"autism nihilism" giving 2,360 results,
"autism solipsism" giving 2,760 results.
"nihilism solipsism" giving 13,600 results,
"autism temporal lobe epilepsy" giving 10,300 results,
"epilepsy autism" giving 124,000 results
"epilepsy nihilism" giving 5,750 results, and,
"epilepsy solipsism" giving 399 results.

The ngram shows autism the more recent, surpassing solipsism in 1965, and nihilism in 1983, and nearing epilepsy recently:
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?co ... moothing=3

Tadzio

Yes, I think there could be a correlation between people with Autism/Asperger's and people who hold these kind of philosophies.

I dabbled with existentialism and nihilism and solipsism before I discovered Buddhism.

Not a solopsist but existential nihilist? Sure.

I was definitely a natural solipsist as a child, but I guess all kids are.

nihilism is leading me towards depression

I'm a agnostic nihilist hopeful. Haha there is no evidence proving anything as right or wrong. We have desires and judge thing accordingly. But there is no fact in which one is correct. But I did stumble on to something interesting. Society has a goal for survival. So there judging of right and wrong is based mistletoe on alienating the fewest. So they have tried to give everyone equality. But the problem is that if your desire is to survive you will always place a higher value to yourself then to others. I found it easier to put it to numbers. Lets say for equality you give everyone the value of 1. Animals get less as you can see by the way we treat them. The problem is when we are faced with having to choose. If each person has has the same value let's say a=1 and b= 1 if a circumstance required us to chosse one over the other we would have to draw straws. This does not happen. If we where on a raft that could only hold one person and there where two of us there would be 3 ways of deciding. Survival of the fitest. So fight for the spot. 2 draw straws or someother method to leave it up to chance or try to give your self a higher value. Like I have kids or you are 70 years old and I'm a child. You have lived a good life. So we see that there will never be equality when our desire is to live. How do we solve this. By giving a new value to everyone. What is the only value that can not be added to or taken away from. Infinite if we take out the factor of dying we now could now have a structure that we could follow. Ernest Becker shows that death is the motivating factor behind our decisions. We can hope there is a god to help us. Or we could attempt this on our own. Good luck on the second one. It doesn't take long to see the problems to attempt this as a whole