Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The view in metaphysics that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.
- noun The doctrine that mind and matter are formed from, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Any system of thought which seeks to deduce all the varied phenomena of both the physical and spiritual worlds from a single principle; specifically, the metaphysical doctrine that there is but one substance, either mind (idealism) or matter (materialism), or a substance that is neither mind nor matter, but is the substantial ground of both: opposed to dualism.
- noun Any theory or system which attempts to explain many heterogeneous phenomena by a single principle.
- noun In biology, same as
monogenesis .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Metaph.) That doctrine which refers all phenomena to a single ultimate constituent or agent; -- the opposite of
dualism . - noun (Biol.) See
Monogenesis , 1. - noun The doctrine that the universe is an organized unitary being or total self-inclusive structure.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
doctrine of the oneness andunity ofreality , despite the appearance of diversity in the world.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the doctrine that reality consists of a single basic substance or element
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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So neutral monism is the way I can say essentially nothing about what I think is going on, but at least not multiply my ignorant hypotheses
Bunny and a Book 2008
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Berlin set out his basic account of what he would later label monism in his biography of Marx
Isaiah Berlin Cherniss, Joshua 2008
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In a minor sense the word monism is sometimes used in psychology to designate the doctrine that there is no real distinction between the soul and its faculties.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913
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He’s arguing here, and elsewhere, that they got their monism from the natural sciences.
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Dualism contrasts with monism, which is the theory that there is only one fundamental kind, category of thing or principle; and, rather less commonly, with pluralism, which is the view that there are many kinds or categories.
Dualism Robinson, Howard 2007
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To my knowledge there are two main (related) arguments against existence monism, which is that the existence of a plurality of concrete objects is (i) intuitively obvious, and (ii) perceptually apparent.
Monism Schaffer, Jonathan 2007
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He extrapolated a new religion or philosophy called monism from evolutionary science.
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He extrapolated a new religion or philosophy called monism from evolutionary science.
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It does not correctly represent itself: for the so-called monism does not, indeed, suppose that that which
The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality Rudolf Schmid
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Modern science, on the contrary, starts from the magnificent synthetic conception of monism, that is to say, of
Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx) Enrico Ferri 1894
sethbook commented on the word monism
Also a made-up word pertaining to idiotic sayings and pronunciations by a certain woman named Mona, 1988-1994.
July 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word monism
Wow, she died young. Also, should you be calling a 6 year old an idiot?
July 17, 2009