solipsism and advaita

[Greg Goode]

Let me add a few things on this thread, solipsism vs. advaita.

Solipsism has two strands, (i) only the self exists, or (ii) only the self
can be proved to exist.  In Solipsism, this "self" is the small self, or
jiva, or the Vaisvanara (waking-state ego).  In the mid 19th century, there
was a German irrationalist philosopher named Max Stirner who asserted (i),
adding, "the devil to all the rest."

Solipsism's arguments against the rest of the world (that they are my
projections) would perhaps be amenable to advaita.  But the very "self" of
solipsism is no more than an object of thought.  So this object of thought,
the small self, would not be able to withstand advaita's arguments on the
relative unreality of all that is seen or percieved or cognized.

Advaita is saying something different.  Not that the ego is all that
exists, but that the Consciousness by which anything is seen or percieved
or cognized is all that exists.

--Greg Goode