Monism

Monism is the philosophical view that all reality can be reduced to a single thing. This view is the opposite of dualism, which depicts reality as reduced to two substances: good and evil, light and darkness, body and soul, etc. Although opposites, the meaning of both monism and dualism can only be understood together. While monism stresses on one entity, dualism stresses on two independent entities. Once understood, the two entities of dualism make up the single entity of monism. Monism attributes unity or singleness to a thought. The monist holds that the one is before its parts and thus views the cosmos as fundamental. For example, a circle is prior to the two semi-circles that make the whole circle. 

Dualism believes the mind and body are separate entities and exist independently in this world. While in pluralism, it is thought that many entities coexist in nature. In response to these beliefs, a famous German philosopher, Christian von Wolff, from the 18th century brought the concept of Monism in his work, titled ‘Logic’. His belief in monism removed the idea of duality in nature, establishing the belief that everything is one.

Monism, Philosophy, and Its Progress With Time

Philosophers who believe in reality’s unification or oneness are labelled as Monists, and the philosophy is called monism. It doesn’t hold a solid historical background, hence categorised as conceptual labels.  For a long time, philosophers have tried to understand diversity and how everything unites. Some people even got so attracted to the concept of oneness that they denied the plurality of things. Monism is the belief that has no particular group demonstrating it. It has no exact representation amongst any group. However, it is still considered a prominent viewpoint for various doctrines. Even with this different application of monism, the true meaning is hindered in no way. It remains rooted in its true meaning, i.e., ‘oneness’.Monists believe that existence is solely based upon one ultimate category of being. This means the person is created of only the body or only the mind.Monism has never been disproved as a belief. It presupposes that there are parts for the full to be before them. Such a theory postulates that there are parts that are derived from the whole, and the whole is prior to its parts. The historical debate is not over whether parts exist or not; the debate is about which is prior. We will understand the monastic view, so interpreted: the world has parts, but the parts are dependent fragments of an integrated whole.But the beliefs of monism are so strong towards oneness and unity. It does not consider the value of the particulars in comparison to the whole. That is why it has not been so adapted in the religious and philosophical aspects of Asian and western parts of the world. 

Monism is viewed into three kinds:

• Physicalism or materialism: According to this, only physical matter exists. All intellectual things can be derived from physical matter
• Idealism or phenomenalism: This type of monism is the opposite of physicalism
• Neutral monism: In this belief, both body and mind can be reduced to a third substance

Types of Monism

There are various types of monism based on philosophers’ different points of view. They all agree on oneness, but they differ in what they target and how they count.

• In priority monism, all existing things originate from a source that is different from them
• According to existence monism, there can only be one thing, the universe, which can be classified arbitrarily and artificially into many parts
• According to property monism, all properties are of a single type (for example, there are only physical properties)
• In partial monism, there is only one substance in each realm of being (however many there may be)
• According to substance monism, all things can be explained by the existence of only one substance, even though many things may be made up of this substance, such as mind and matter
• According to dual-aspect monism, mental and physical experiences are just two aspects of the same substance
• Neutral monism believes that the basic nature of reality is always neutral
• Attributive monism is the belief that no matter how many substances exist, they are all of a single ultimate nature

Monism and Hinduism

Monism has been closely related to mysticism as there are similar experiences in both these philosophies. Some of the greatest mystics of all time belong to Hinduism and Christianity. They have always emphasised the divine experience of oneness and oneness of people to God. God is considered absolute, and all the people are insignificant.The very first philosophy in Hinduism is Advaita-Vedanta. Advaita means non-dual, which is the opposite of duality. According to this philosophy, there is no mind, body, or soul, no death and birth. There is only one ultimate truth, which we can be aware of only in our deep sleep. Accordingly, whoever gets the knowledge of the Absolute becomes Absolute.This philosophy is very much similar to monism. Many other philosophies are contrary to monism and do not believe in prioritising “Oneness”.

Monistic Philosophers

The philosophies of monism are divided into various periods: primitive, mid-age, and contemporary. Reality in monism is the awareness of One Divine God. Additionally, reality as one substance was the philosophy of Sephardic Jew Baruch Spinoza (17th century). The German idealist G. W. F. Hegel’s (19th century) philosophy of the Absolute is the most dominant philosophy in the West.Many philosophers belonging to the West have extended and brought the idea of the Absolute in the twentieth century. Spinoza, a very well-known philosopher, believed that everything could be considered one. However, he also thought that the one comprises many attributes, of which we are aware of only the mind and body.Time and again, different philosophers have believed in monism but have also not ignored the existence of the particulars. However, the ontological Monists disregard pluralism.

Conclusion

The concept that the cosmos is the one and only basic actual concrete object prior to any of its parts is monism. There are certain theories both in support of monism and against it. In this piece, we have tried to understand monism and the idea behind it.