Monism is a philosophical position that recognizes the unity of the world, namely the similarity of all objects included in it, the relationship between them and the self-development of the whole that they form. Monism is one of the options for considering the diversity of world phenomena in the light of a single beginning, a common basis of everything that exists. The opposite of monism is dualism, which recognizes two independent principles, and pluralism, based on the plurality of principles.
The meaning and types of monism
There is a concrete scientific and ideological monism. The main goal of the first is to find commonality in the phenomena of a particular class: mathematical, chemical, social, physical, and so on. The task of the second is to find a single basis for all existing phenomena. By the nature of the solution of such a philosophical question as the ratio of thinking and being, monism is divided into three varieties:
- Subjective idealism.
- Materialism.
- Objective idealism.
The subjective idealist interprets the world as the content of personal reason and sees this as its unity. Materialistic monism recognizes the objective world, interprets all phenomena as a form of existence of matter or its properties. An objective idealist recognizes both his own consciousness and the world that exists beyond its borders.
The concept of monism
Monism is a concept that recognizes one substance as the foundation of the world. That is, this direction of philosophy proceeds from a single principle, in contrast to dualism and pluralism, directions that are unable to substantiate the relationship of spiritual and material. Monism sees the solution of this problem as the unity of the world, the common basis of being. Depending on what is recognized for this basis, monism is divided into materialistic and idealistic.
Monism principle
Monism seeks to reduce to a single fundamental principle all the diversity of the world. Such an aspiration appears as a result of reflection on a pattern that manifests itself when moving from the whole to the parts. The number of opening objects in this division increases, and their diversity decreases. For example, there are more cells than living organisms, but their species are smaller. There are fewer molecules than atoms, but they are more diverse. By passing to the limit, they conclude that as a result of a decrease in diversity when moving inside an object there will be a completely homogeneous first substratum. This is the basic principle of monism.
The principles of monism are the search for such a fundamental principle. And this task has been paramount since the emergence of the philosophy of monism. For example, Heraclitus claimed that everything consists of fire, Thales - of water, Democritus - of atoms and so on. The last attempt to find and justify the fundamental principle of the world was made by E. Haeckel at the end of the 19th century. Here, ether was proposed as the basis.
Forms of monism
Monism is a way of solving the fundamental question in philosophy, which, taking into account the understanding of the sought-after fundamental principle of the world, is divided into a continuous and discrete form. Continual monism describes the world in terms of form and substrate, discrete in terms of structure and elements. The first was represented by such philosophers as Hegel, Heraclitus, Aristotle. Representatives of the second are Democritus, Leibniz and others.
For a monist, finding the fundamental principle is not the main goal. Having reached the desired first substratum, he gets the opportunity to move in the opposite direction, from parts to the whole. The definition of generality allows us to find a connection initially between the primary elements, and then between their more complex compounds. The movement to the whole from its primary elements can be carried out in two ways: diachronic and synchronous.
Moreover, monism is not only a point of view, but also a method of research. For example, the theory of mathematical numbers derives many of its objects from a natural number. In geometry, a point is taken as a basis. They tried to apply the monistic approach within the framework of one science when developing worldview monism. Thus, doctrines appeared that considered mechanical movement (mechanism), number (Pythagoras), physical processes (physicalism) and so on as the world basis. If difficulties arose in the process, this led to the denial of monism by pluralism.
