Monism

From Exampleproblems

Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that there is only one principle, essence, substance or energy. 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.

1 Theological growth and breadth
2 Philosophical monism
3 Monism and Pantheism
4 Monism in religion
- 4.1 Monism in Hinduism
- 4.2 Ayyavazhi
5 Ancient philosophers
6 See also
7 External links

Theological growth and breadth

The Roman Catholic Church, the world's largest, has at its core been considered to be the church of Logos, a monistic concept, since its inception. There is a growing understanding of monism in the modern spiritual and philosophical climate, evidenced by increasing Western awareness of Hinduism (including Vedanta and Yoga), Taoism, Buddhism, Pantheism, Surat Shabda Yoga, Zen, and similar systems of thought which explore the mystical and spiritual elements of a monistic philosophy. Moreover, the New Thought Movement has embraced many monistic concepts for over 100 years.

Philosophical monism

Monism is often seen as partitioned into three basic types:

Substantial Monism, (One thing) which holds that there is one substance.
Attributive Monism, (One category) which holds that while is only one kind of thing but many different individual things or beings in this category.
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:

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

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.
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.)
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 here 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 and Pantheism

Following a long and still current tradition H.P. Owen (1971: 65) claimed that "Pantheists are ‘monists’...they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it." Although, like Spinoza, some pantheists may also be monists, and monism may even be essential to some versions of pantheism (like Spinoza's), pantheists are not monists. Like most people they are pluralists. They believe, quite plausibly, that there are many things and kinds of things and many different kinds of value. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Monism in religion

For some, monism may also have religious/spiritual implications. Recognizing this, some inveigh against the 'dangers of monism,' asserting that in order to resolve all things to a single substrate, one dissolves God in the process.

Others say that the "single substrate" is God. Theological arguments can be made for this within Christianity, for example employing the Roman Catholic doctrine of "divine simplicity" (though a monistic interpretation of that doctrine would not be orthodox). Catholicism comes to more clearly embrace monism in its fundamentally being founded upon the concept of Logos, as stated most recently by Cardinal (now Pope) Ratzinger: "From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos." As well, many other religions (Hinduism, Ayyavazhi and Judaism in particular) embrace monism at their core.

Monotheism combines both Monistic and Dualistic assumptions. One transcendent ineffable God, Monism. 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 in Hinduism

The first religious system in India that clearly 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. But even outside nondualist Vedanta, Hinduism is monistic, even 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. Such monistic thought also extends to other Hindu systems like Yoga and non-dualist Tantra.

Another type of monism is qualified monism, the school of Ramanuja or Vishishtadvaita, which admits that the universe is part of God, or Narayana, a type of panentheism, but there is a plurality of souls within this supreme Being. In other words, this type of monism, or Monistic theism is the type of monotheism more prevalent in Hindu culture, (with respect to Dvaita) and includes the concept of a personal God as a universal, omnipotent Supreme Being, panentheism and monism. In monistic theism, God is both Immanent and Transcendent.

In some Western monotheistic traditions, God is viewed as transcendent only. Thus the notion of divinity (presence of God) present in all things is absent.

Ayyavazhi

Ayyavazhi asserts the concept of Ekam where 'all is one', the concept closer to Nirguna Brahman in Hinduism. And Vaikundar was the incarnation of this Ekam. It accepts almost all different gods in Hinduism. But all of them were unified into Ayya Vaikundar. This is to destroying the evil force Kalimayai by overcomming the boons offered to Kaliyan.

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 transcendant 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).