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there are a hundred thousand different ways to explain this situation, and all that matters is how we define it (although in worrying about how "we" define it, there is a presupposition of existence on the part of the worrier-- thanx descartes).
cellophanediety- solipsism deals less with whether they exist once they leave our sight, and more with whether we exist when they are gone. hardcore solipsists believe that when they die, the entirety of existence dies with them, because it all exists in their heads.
we can take the doxastic or non-doxastic foundationalist approach, and claim that the only thing we can truly be sure of is our sense-perceptions (doxastic) or our feelings about senses (i have a white feeling of that wall-- aimed at a white wall)(non-doxastic).
when we look at this situation, we all tend to try to be foundationalists- we want to find one, if only one, thing that we can all agree on as being true. the sad "reality" is this: no two people will ever agree on the same thing completely if they are being honest with themselves. what it means to me to exist is inconsequential when compared to what anybody else thinks it means to exist.
science tells us there has to be a material cause for things- i exist because my parents made me.
religion tells us there has to be a cause (not necessarily material) for everything- i exist because God (the one substance, the supreme godhead, etc etc) made me.
beauty is not the only thing in the eye of the beholder. existence is in the perceiver. if we are to claim that we exist, we must acknowledge that either we are individual, and have a unique view of things (therefore what it means to exist is transitory) or we must acknowledge that we are all one and the same (souls and the like), in which case we must realize that we are a part of the whole, a face of the one substance, etc, and that so long as any other person is here, we are here as well.
oh ya, and none of that mind-body dualism stuff. it is a way to get around my line of thought, but you must ask which is more important, the body, or the soul? if you say body, refer to individual perception. if you say soul, refer to infinality of being.
anyway, thats my ranting two cents. enjoy
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