monism

 

(mō'nĭzəm) [Gr.,=belief in one], in metaphysics, term introduced in the 18th cent. by Christian von Wolff for any theory that explains all phenomena by one unifying principle or as manifestations of a single substance. Monistic theorists differ considerably in their choice of a basis of unification. It may be material, as with Ernst Haeckel, who took the substance, or energy, as the only reality. It may be spiritual, as with G. W. Hegel, to whom mind, or spirit, is the reality by which all is to be explained. Or, as in Spinoza, it may be a substance, or Deity, of which body and mind are attributes that are held in equipoise. The opposites of monism are dualism and pluralism.

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Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that all is one, that there are no fundamental divisions, and a unified set of laws underlie nature.

Monism is to be distinguished from dualism, which holds that ultimately there are two kinds of substance, and from pluralism, which holds that ultimately there are many kinds of substance.

Monism is often erroneously seen in relation to pantheism, panentheism, and an immanent God. The concepts of absolutism, the monad, and the "Universal substrate" are closely related as well.

Philosophical monism

The origins of the term and understanding for the term Monad historically have their roots in the Hellenic philosophical teachings of Pythagoras. Monad derives from the Greek word μόνος or Monos meaning single and without division.

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, phenomenalism, or mentalistic monism 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.
4. Reflexive monism, a position developed by Max Velmans in 2000, as a method of resolving the difficulties associated with both dualist and reductionist agendas concerning consciousness, by viewing physical phenomena-as-perceived as being part of the contents of consciousness.

Ancient philosophers

The following pre-Socratic philosophers described reality as being monistic:

• Thales: Water.
• Anaximander: Apeiron (meaning 'the undefined infinite'). Reality is some, one thing, but we cannot know what.
• Anaximenes: Air.
• Pythagoras: Number. Math entirely describes the world, to the extent that its logical model is the world. This converges with Max Tegmark's Mathematical universe hypothesis.
• 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).
• Anaxagoras: Cosmic Mind
• Empedocles: Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Four Elements - no longer monism.

And post-Socrates:

• Neopythagorians such as Apollonius of Tyana centered their cosmologies on the Monad or One.
• Middle Platonism under such works as Numenius express the Universe emanating from the Monad or One.
• 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).

Monism, pantheism, and panentheism

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), 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). Not all Monists are Pantheists. Exclusive Monists believe that the universe, the God of the Pantheist, simply does not exist. In addition, monists can be Deists, Pandeists, Theists or Panentheists; believing in a monotheistic God that is omnipotent and all-pervading, and both transcendent and immanent. There are monist polytheists and panentheists in Hinduism (particularly in Advaita and Vishistadvaita respectively), Judaism (especially in Kabbalah), in Christianity (especially among Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans) and in Islam (among the Sufis, especially the Bektashi).

Monism in religious and spiritual systems

Hinduism

Monism is found in the Nasadiya Sukta of the Rigveda, which speaks of the One being-non-being that 'breathed without breath'. The first system in Hinduism that clearly, unequivocally 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. Kashmir Shaivism.

Another type of monism, qualified monism, and from the school of Ramanuja or Vishishtadvaita, admits that the universe is part of God, or Narayana, a type of either pantheism or panentheism, 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.)

Christianity

See also: Christian anthropology

Christianity, being monotheistic, can be said to combine both Monistic and Dualistic assumptions, akin to Neoplatonic thought such as expressed by Plotinus, ultimately concluding that there is one transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, ineffable God. See Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Another use of the term "monism" is in Christian anthropology to refer to the innate nature of mankind as being holistic, as opposed to bipartite and tripartite views.

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^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}. 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)^{[citation needed]}.

In On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine argued, in the context of the problem of evil, that evil is not the opposite of good, but rather merely the absence of good, something that does not have existence in itself. Likewise, C. S. Lewis described evil as a "parasite" in Mere Christianity, as he viewed evil as something that cannot exist without good to provide it with existence. Lewis went on to argue against dualism from the basis of moral absolutism, and rejected the dualistic notion that God and Satan are opposites, arguing instead that God has no equal, hence no opposite. Lewis rather viewed Satan as the opposite of Michael the archangel.

Valentinianism

Valentinianism was a religious doctrine named after the Gnostic theologian Valentinius who lived in the 2nd century. While Gnostic traditions are typically regarded as dualistic, "a standard element in the interpretation of Valentinianism and similar forms of Gnosticism is the recognition that they are fundamentally monistic" (Schoedel, William, "Gnostic Monism and the Gospel of Truth" in Bentley Layton (ed.) The Rediscovery of Gnosticism, Vol.1: The School of Valentinus, E.J. Brill, Leiden.).

Valentinian sources regularly proclaim God (which is more akin to an indescribable Neoplatonist monad than the typical Orthodox Christian conception of a transcendent entity nevertheless possessed of a recognisable persona) to permeate all, and that the material universe is founded on error, as is our perception of it.

Materiality is occasionally described by the Valentinians as being exterior to the monad, and yet there are also passages that describe our experience in ignorance and in this world as a bad dream. And so variant interpretations are possible. Non-monistic as well as quasi-monistic interpretations are also suggested. The concept of 'monad' may itself simply refer to the simplicity or unitary nature of the invisible hidden God. Similarly, the term 'monad' may simply indicate the uniqueness of the spiritual principle. The depiction of differing states of knowledge or awareness in spatial terms is typical of Gnostic metaphor, especially within the Valentinian tradition.

Judaism

According to Chasidic Thought (particularly as propounded by R' Shneur Zalman of LiadiShneur Zalman of Liadi) Chabad, God is held to be immanent within creation for two interrelated reasons.

• Firstly, a very strong Jewish belief is that "[t]he Divine life-force which brings [the universe] into existence must constantly be present... were this life-force to forsake [the universe] for even one brief moment, it would revert to a state of utter nothingness, as before the creation..." [1].

• Secondly, and simultaneously, Judaism holds as axiomatic that God is an absolute unity, and that He is Perfectly Simple - thus if His sustaining power is within nature, then His essence is also within nature.

However the Vilna GaonVilna Gaon was very much against this philosophy, for they felt that it wouuld lead to pantheism and heresy. According to some this is the main reason for the Gaon's ban on Chasidism.

Note that, at the same time, Jewish Thought considers God as separate from all physical, created things (transcendent) and as existing outside of time (eternal). For a discussion of the resultant paradox; see Tzimtzum.

See also Negative theology.

Theological growth and breadth

Many forms of Hinduism (including Vedanta, Yoga, and certain schools of Shaivism), Taoism, Pantheism, Rastafari 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 100 years.

Monism can be said to oppose religious philosophy altogether by claiming that the idea of spirituality contradicts the monist principle of an indistinguishable mind and body. However, one might consider monism more fundamental than any religious philosophy while taking religion and spirituality as sources of wisdom.

A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles, a spiritual self-study course published in 1975, represents a thought system of pure mentalistic monism or non-dualism.

In the Course, only God and His Creation, which is Spirit and has nothing to do with the world, are real. The physical universe is an illusion and does not exist. The Course compares the world of perception with a dream. It arises from the projection of the dreamer, i.e. the mind ("projection makes perception," T-21.in.1:1), according to its wishes (perception "is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you wanted to be true," T-24.VII.8:10). The purpose of the perceptual world is to ensure our separate, individual existence apart from God but avoid the responsibility and project the guilt onto others. As we learn to give the world another purpose and recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or "forgive," as a way to awaken gradually from the dream and finally remember our true Identity in God.

The Course’s non-dualistic metaphysics is similar to Advaita Vedanta. What A Course in Miracles adds, is that it gives a motivation for the seeming though illusory existence of the perceptual world (for a further discussion, see Wapnick, Kenneth: The Message of A Course in Miracles, 1997, ISBN 0-933291-25-6).

Others

Several modern religious movements, for example the organizations within the New Thought Movement (of which Unity Church is numerically the largest), may be said to have a particularly mentalistic monism orientation. The theology of Christian Science is explicitly mentalistic monism: it teaches that all that exists is God and God's ideas; that the world as it appears to the senses is a distortion of the underlying spiritual reality.

The West is inundated with physicalistic monism, which is not surprising since physicalist claims are in general more easily confirmed or denied using empirical methods than are the claims of mentalist monists. There is therefore a widespread belief, supported by a preponderance of the available evidence, that everything will eventually be explained in terms of matter/energy by science. The familiarity of this worldview can make the ideas of mentalistic monism hard to grasp, and even paradoxical. One way to begin to grasp the idea is through analogy. One analogy is the movie screen, which can be thought of as a modern equivalent to Plato's "cave of shadows". If we next consider "Star Trek's holodeck", keeping in mind that it only exists in our experience as an aspect of a fictional world's fictional technology, it takes us a step further toward the mental monist's worldview, as what appear to be physical objects on the holodeck are only illusions. Next consider the movie "The Matrix". In "The Matrix", which is also a fictional technology postulated within a fictional story, even people's bodies and identities are projected. Then--in your imagination--replace the machine with a vast and powerful mind whose ideas create the illusions we perceive to be real. A last analogy is our dreams at night. We seem to be in a world filled with other objects and other people, and yet nothing of it is real. These analogies allow us to begin to think along these lines, and wonder just how we might verify the objective existence of the objects we perceive through our senses. ^{[verification needed]} However, while absolute knowledge of objective reality may well be out of our reach, it has generally been quite difficult to collect hard evidence from repeatable experience that will support the validity of the theories proposed by supporters of mental monism.

Historically, monism has been promoted in spiritual terms on several occasions, notably by Ernst Haeckel. To the dismay of some modern observers, Haeckel's various ideas often had components of social Darwinism and scientific racism. ^{[verification needed]}

Paul Carus called himself "an atheist who loves God", and advocated "henotheism", which is often seen as monist or pantheist in nature. ^{[verification needed]}

See also

• Acosmism
• A Course in Miracles
• Advaita Vedanta
• African philosophy
• Anthroposophy
• Christian Science
• Cosmotheism
• Dialectical monism
• Dualism
• Freethought
• Holism
• Hindu idealism
• Indefinite monism
• Naturalistic spirituality
• Neutral Monism
• Mind-body problem
• Monad
• Monadology
• Monotheism
• Panentheism
• Pluralism (philosophy of mind)
• Reduction (philosophy)
• Reductionism
• Philosophy of freedom

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia - Monism
• Hinduism's Online Lexicon - (scroll down to find the definition of monism)
• Indefinite Monism
• Monism Art Videopublic service

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