Monism

Monism is a philosophical and metaphysical theory that proposes the unity of reality. Monism asserts that there is only one fundamental kind, category of thing or principle; and rejects the dualistic or pluralistic theories. The term "monism" was introduced in the 18th century by Christian von Wolff in his work Logic (1728), to designate types of philosophical thought in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind and explain all phenomena by one unifying principle, or as manifestations of a single substance.

The three basic types of monism are physicalism, idealism, and neutral monism.

Physicalism[edit | edit source]

Physicalism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that everything that exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things. In contemporary philosophy, physicalism is most frequently associated with philosophy of mind, especially the mind-body problem, in which it holds that the mind is a physical thing in some sense.

Idealism[edit | edit source]

Idealism is a form of monism that asserts that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is often contrasted with physicalism. Idealism denies the knowability or existence of non-mental reality.

Neutral Monism[edit | edit source]

Neutral monism, in philosophy, is a monistic metaphysics that holds that ultimate reality is all of one kind. To this extent, neutral monism can be considered a form of monism. It denies the existence of a dichotomy or dualism and asserts that the mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the same elements, which are themselves "neutral", that is, neither physical nor mental.

References[edit | edit source]

Monism Resources
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