MONISM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Monism

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noun

Monism n.

(Metaph.) That doctrine which refers all phenomena to a single ultimate constituent or agent; the opposite of dualism. Note: The doctrine has been held in three generic forms: matter and its phenomena have been explained as a modification of mind, involving an idealistic monism; or mind has been explained by and resolved into matter, giving a materialistic monism; or, thirdly, matter, mind, and their phenomena have been held to be manifestations or modifications of some one substance, like the substance of Spinoza, or a supposed unknown something of some evolutionists, which is capable of an objective and subjective aspect.

(Biol.) See Monogenesis, 1.

The doctrine that the universe is an organized unitary being or total self-inclusive structure. "Monism means that the whole of reality, i.e., everything that is, constitutes one inseparable and indivisible entirety. Monism accordingly is a unitary conception of the world. It always bears in mind that our words are abstracts representing parts or features of the One and All, and not separate existences. Not only are matter and mind, soul and body, abstracts, but also such scientific terms as atoms and molecules, and also religious terms such as God and world."

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Etymology of 'Monism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Monism" Quotes from Famous Books

... the world is one in many ways. One time and space. One subject of discourse. Its parts interact. Its oneness and manyness are co- ordinate. Question of one origin. Generic oneness. One purpose. One story. One knower. Value of pragmatic method. Absolute monism. Vivekananda. Various types of union discussed. Conclusion: We must oppose monistic dogmatism and ...

— Pragmatism - A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking • William James

... Cybele and Mithra there was growing up a powerful priesthood; Franz Cumont (1) speaks of "the learned priests of the Asiatic cults" as building up, on the foundations of old fetichism and superstition, a complete religious philosophy—just as the Brahmins had built the monism of the Vedanta on the "monstrous idolatries of Hinduism." And it was likely that a similar process would evolve the new religion expected. Toutain again calls attention to the patronage accorded to all these cults by the Roman Emperors, ...

— Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning • Edward Carpenter

... satisfaction in dualism advances to monism. The spectacle of two unrelated ultimate principles impels it to seek and, if necessary, to invent some mode of reconciling them. Explain it as we may, the craving for unity, for synthesis, for mediation is radical in human ...

— Monophysitism Past and Present - A Study in Christology • A. A. Luce

... the consciousness of men, obey one and the same great law of causation; that all may be ultimately referred to the mechanics of atoms—the mechanical or mechanistic, homogeneous or monistic view of the universe; in one word, Monism. ...

— Freedom in Science and Teaching. - from the German of Ernst Haeckel • Ernst Haeckel

... the presence and power of sin. To the Vedantin, on the other hand, sin, in the Christian sense of it, is an impossibility. Where God is all and all is God there can be no separate will to antagonize the divine will. Monism necessarily, in the last analysis, carries every act and motive back to the supreme Will and establishes an all-inclusive necessitarianism which is fatal to human freedom; and it therefore excludes sin as an act ...

— India's Problem Krishna or Christ • John P. Jones

... worthy. He works in an external environment, has limits, and has enemies. When John Mill said that the notion of God's omnipotence must be given up, if God is to be kept as a religious object, he was surely accurately right; yet, so prevalent is the lazy Monism that idly haunts the regions of God's name, that so simple and truthful a saying was generally treated as a paradox; God, it was said, could not be finite. I believe that the only God worthy of the name must ...

— Problems of Immanence - Studies Critical and Constructive • J. Warschauer

Words linked to "Monism" : doctrine, monistic, pluralism, ism, philosophy