monism
Sign in to savethumb|The circled dot was used by the Pythagoreans and later Greeks to represent the first metaphysical being, the Monad or The Absolute. Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonism everything is derived from The One. In this view only the One is ontologically fundamental or prior to everything else. Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there exists only a single thing, the universe,
AI overview
Monism is the philosophical idea that reality is fundamentally one—either that everything comes from a single source (like "The One" in ancient philosophy), or that only one thing actually exists. It matters because it addresses fundamental questions about the nature of existence and whether the many things we perceive are ultimately connected to or derived from a single underlying reality.
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Article
37 sectionsContents
- Definitions
- History
- Types
- Monistic philosophers
- Pre-Socratic
- Post-Socrates
- Modern
- Monistic neuroscientists
- Religion
- Pantheism
- Panentheism
- Pandeism
- Indian and East Asian religions
- Characteristics
- Hinduism
- Vedanta
- Modern Hinduism
- Buddhism
- Levels of truth
- Sikhism
- Abrahamic faiths
- Judaism
- Christianity
- Creator–creature distinction
- Rejection of radical dualism
- Mormonism
- Islam
- Quran
- Sufism
- Shi'ism
- Baháʼí Faith
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|The circled dot was used by the Pythagoreans and later Greeks to represent the first metaphysical being, the Monad or The Absolute. Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonism everything is derived from The One. In this view only the One is ontologically fundamental or prior to everything else. Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there exists only a single thing, the universe, which can only be artificially and arbitrarily divided into many things. Substance monism asserts that a variety of existing things can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. Substance monism posits that only one kind of substance exists, although many things may be made up of this substance, e.g., matter or mind. Dual-aspect monism is the view that the mental and the physical are two aspects of, or perspectives on, the same substance. Neutral monism believes the fundamental nature of reality to be neither mental nor physical; in other words it is "neutral". Political monism is sometimes used to describe political concepts, such as unitarianism, based on certain principles like ethnicity or identity.
== Definitions == There are two sorts of definitions for monism: The wide definition: a philosophy is monistic if it postulates unity of the origin of all things; all existing things return to a source that is distinct from them. The restricted definition: this requires not only unity of origin but also unity of substance and essence.