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Solipsism poses a problem: it is at once nonsensical – for, like it or not, I cannot doubt the reality of my life so long as the other person exists; and yet coherent at the same time – for it is only myself that I can know as a subject, since I only have access to my own consciousness. It is a contradictory thesis, yet a well-known hypothesis, clearly rejected by philosophers, who nevertheless often espouse doctrines that tend in rather the same direction, it is the worst point from which to begin considering the issue of the other, yet at the same time the only useful reference point for evaluating the thinking that does so. For the true scandal of philosophy no doubt consists in the fact that this issue just cannot be addressed.