Monism: Encyclopedia - Monism

Monism

Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that there is only one principle, essence, substance or energy in this Universe. Monism is to be distinguished from dualism, which holds that ultimately there are two principles, and from pluralism, which holds that ultimately there are many principles.

Monism - Theological growth and breadth

Hinduism (including Vedanta and Yoga), Taoism, Buddhism, Pantheism, Zen, and similar systems of thought explore the mystical and spiritual elements of a monistic philosophy. With increasing awareness of these systems of thought, western spiritual and philosophical climate has seen a growing understanding of monism. Moreover, the New Thought Movement has embraced many monistic concepts for over a 100 years.

Monism - Philosophical monism

Monism is often seen as partitioned into three basic types:

1. Substantial Monism, (One thing) which holds that there is one substance.
2. Attributive Monism, (One category) which holds that while there is only one kind of thing there are many different individual things or beings in this category.
3. Absolute Monism, which holds that there is only one substance and only one being. Absolute Monism, therefore can only be of the idealistic type (see below)

Monism is further defined according to three kinds:

1. Idealism or phenomenalism, which holds that only mind is real.
2. Neutral monism, which holds that both the mental and the physical can be reduced to some sort of third substance, or energy.
3. Physicalism or materialism, which holds that only the physical is real, and that the mental can be reduced to the physical.

Certain other positions are hard to pigeonhole into the above categories, including:

1. Functionalism, like materialism, holds that the mental can ultimately be reduced to the physical, but also holds that all critical aspects of the mind are also reducible to some substrate-neutral "functional" level. Thus something need not be made out of neurons to have mental states. This is a popular stance in cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
2. Eliminativism, which holds that talk of the mental will eventually be proved as unscientific and completely discarded. Just as we no longer follow the ancient Greeks in saying that all matter is composed of earth, air, water, and fire, people of the future will no longer speak of "beliefs", "desires", and other mental states. A subcategory of eliminativism is radical behaviourism, a view held by B. F. Skinner.)
3. Anomalous monism, a position proposed by Donald Davidson in the 1970s as a way to resolve the Mind-body problem. It could be considered (by the above definitions) either physicalism or neutral monism. Davidson holds that there is only physical matter, but that all mental objects and events are perfectly real and are identical with (some) physical matter. But physicalism retains a certain priority, inasmuch as (1) All mental things are physical, but not all physical things are mental, and (2) (As John Haugeland puts it) Once you take away all the atoms, there's nothing left. This monism was widely considered an advance over previous identity theories of mind and body, because it does not entail that one must be able to provide an actual method for redescribing any particular kind of mental entity in purely physical terms. Indeed there may be no such method; this is a case of nonreductive physicalism, or perhaps emergent physicalism/materialism.

Monism - Monism Pantheism and Panentheism

Following a long and still current tradition H.P. Owen (1971: 65) claimed that

Although, like Spinoza, some pantheists may also be monists, and monism may even be essential to some versions of pantheism (like Spinoza's), not all pantheists are monists. Some are polytheists and some are pluralists; they believe, that there are many things and kinds of things and many different kinds of value. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Exclusive Monists believe that the universe, the God of the Pantheist, simply does not exist. In addition, some monists are panentheists: they believe in a monotheistic God that is omnipotent and all-pervading, and both transcendent and immanent. Consequently there are monist panentheists in Hinduism (particularly in Vishistadvaita Vedanta), Judaism (especially in Kabballa), and in Christianity (especially among Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans).

Monism - Monism in religion

Monism - Hinduism

Hinduism is monistic, as far back as the Rig Veda, in which hymnists speak of one being-non-being that 'breathed without breath,' and which singular force self-projected into the cosmic existence. Nevertheless, the first system in Hinduism that clearly, unequivocably explicated Absolute monism was that of Advaita (or nondualist) Vedanta (see Advaita Vedanta) as expounded by Adi Shankaracharya. It is part of the six Hindu systems of philosophy, based on the Upanishads, and posits that the ultimate monad is a formless, ineffable Divine Ground called Brahman. Such monistic thought also extends to other Hindu systems like Yoga and non-dualist Tantra.

Another type of monism, qualified monism, from the school of Ramanuja or Vishishtadvaita, admits that the universe is part of God, or Narayana, a type of either pantheism or pan-en-theism, but sees a plurality of souls and substances within this supreme Being. This type of monism, monistic theism, which includes the concept of a personal God as a universal, omnipotent Supreme Being who is both Immanent and Transcendent, is prevalent in Hinduism. (Monistic theism is not to be confused with absolute monotheism where God is viewed as transcendent only. In absolute monotheism, the notion of Immanence divinity (essence of God) present in all things is absent.)

Monism - Christianity

Christianity, being monotheistic, can be said to combine both Monistic and Dualistic assumptions, akin to Vishistadvaita Vedanta in Hinduism, ultimately concluding that there is one transcendent, immanent, all-pervading, omnipotent, ineffable God.

Some Christians inveigh against the 'dangers of monism', asserting that in order to resolve all things to a single substrate, one dissolves God in the process. Much Christian thought has insisted that while the universe is dependent on God for its existence, it is also of a separate substance from God. Some contend that this means that monism is false, while others argue that there is a distinction between Ultimate Essence, and the differentiated essences (substances), so that the "single substrate" essentially is God. Theological arguments can be made for this within Christianity, for example employing the Christian doctrine of "divine simplicity" (though a monistic interpretation of that doctrine would not be considered orthodox by the Roman Catholic Church).

Monism - Judaism

It is a primary, axiomatic belief of Jewish thought that God is an absolute unity; see Negative theology, Divine simplicity. God is considered eternal (existing outside of time) which is not to be confused with everlasting (existing at every time), and relatedly, the view that God is immanent with, and simultaneously separate (transcendent) from, all created things is consistent with Torah; see Tzimtzum. Under both Judaism and Christianity the question of Monism is almost a moot point in that the omnipotence of God allows Him to separate from or maintain any property.

Monism - Ayyavazhi

Ayyavazhi, a religion originating in 19th century India, asserts the concept of Ekam where 'all is one', a concept close to Nirguna Brahman in Hinduism. It accepts almost all different gods in Hinduism, with them unified into Ayya Vaikundar, who is the Ekam.

Monism - Others

Creation out of nothing ex nihilo, Dualism

Historically, monism has been promoted in spiritual terms on several occasions, notably by Ernst Haeckel. To the dismay of most modern observers, Haeckel's various ideas often had components of social darwinism and scientific racism.

Monism - Ancient philosophers

The following pre-Socratic philosophers described reality as being:

• Thales: Water
• Anaximander: Apeiron (meaning 'the unknown'). Reality is some, one thing, but we cannot know what.
• Anaximanes: Air
• Pythagoras: Number. Maths entirely describes the world, to the extent that its logical model is the world.
• Heraclitus: Fire (in that everything is in constant flux)
• Parmenides: One. Reality is an unmoving perfect sphere, unchanging, undivided.
• Leucippus of Miletus and his disciple Democritus of Abdera: Atoms and void (i.e. atoms and lack of atoms)
• Empedocles: Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Four Elements - no longer monism.

Neoplatonism is Monistic. Plotinus taught that there was an ineffable transcendent God, 'The One,' of which subsequent realities were emanations. From the One emanates the Divine Mind (Nous), the Cosmic Soul (Psyche), and the World (Cosmos).

See also

• Cosmotheism
• Dialectical monism
• Dualism
• Freethought
• Holism
• Naturalistic spirituality
• Mind-body problem
• Monotheism
• Panentheism
• Pluralism (philosophy of mind)
• Reduction (philosophy)
• Reductionism

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Monism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki