Solipsism, Physical Things and Personal Perceptual Space

At first sight, it seems hard to bring together the terms like solipsism and ontology in a phrase like “solipsist ontology”. Ontology is said to be interested in what is and is not “there” and the term “there” seems to imply “what is there independently of a knowing subject”. On the contrary, according to solipsism, only existence of the self can be grounded and if the latter claim can be achieved it is open to discussion. Ural in this study is boldly tackling this aporia. Extending the claims of solipsism to the end, he claims that it is quite possible to develop a form of solipsist ontology. Relying on the existence-giving acts of consciousness he considers existence as a relation between a thing and a field of existence, which he terms as a Ural Space. Ural Spaces do not assume substances or classical identities but are constituted upon relations. In this context, objectivity is grounded upon communicability of relations. I believe that Ural’s book is a brave and original contribution to the contemporary discussions of ontology.

Ahmet Ayhan Çitil

Istanbul 29 Mayıs University, Turkey