Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Philosophy 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.
- n. Philosophy The doctrine that mind and matter are formed from, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. 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. The term was applied by Wolf, its inventor, to the forms of the doctrine which were then known, namely, to the denial of the substantiality either of mind or of matter; but it is now extended to the doctrine that the distinction between physical and mental facts is only phenomenal, and that in themselves they are not distinguished. Many special modifications of monistic speculation, especially on its materialistic side, have accompanied the recent developments of physical science, particularly the doctrine of evolution. (See quotation from Haeckel under monistic.) Such doctrines as that energy, electricity, etc., arc categories of substance different from matter are not taken account of by those who use the term, so that it is not easy to say whether they would be considered as denials of monism or not. Also called
unitism and unitarianism. - n. Any theory or system which attempts to explain many heterogeneous phenomena by a single principle.
- n. In biology, same as monogenesis .
Wiktionary
- n. The doctrine of the oneness and unity of reality, despite the appearance of diversity in the world.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Metaph.) That doctrine which refers all phenomena to a single ultimate constituent or agent; -- the opposite of
dualism . - n. (Biol.) See Monogenesis, 1.
- n. The doctrine that the universe is an organized unitary being or total self-inclusive structure.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the doctrine that reality consists of a single basic substance or element
Etymologies
- The word was coined by German philosopher Baron Christian von Wolff and first used in English in 1862, from New Latin monismus, from Greek μόνος "alone". (Wiktionary)
Examples
“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”
“Berlin set out his basic account of what he would later label monism in his biography of Marx”
“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.”
“He’s arguing here, and elsewhere, that they got their monism from the natural sciences.”
“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.”
“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.”
“He extrapolated a new religion or philosophy called monism from evolutionary science.”
“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
“Modern science, on the contrary, starts from the magnificent synthetic conception of monism, that is to say, of”
“The "monism" of zen, while alluded to by Suzuki, is in actuality a poor choice of words.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘monism’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
mabble, mabsoot, macadamize, macarism, macarize, macaronic, macerate, macerator, machair, machairodont, machicolation, machinule and 898 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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philosophical concepts
Different concepts and branches of philosophy which haven't become independent fields of investigation. For example, "physicalism" is valid but not "physics", "scientism" but not "science", "cogni...
philosophy, ontology, epistemology, ethics, logic, nominalism, analytic philosophy, semiotics, structuralism, deconstructionism, postmodernism, skepticism and 40 more...
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-isms
fascism, anarchism, satanism, racism, racialism, nordicism, nazism, socialism, catholicism, national socialism, paganism, hinduism and 67 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
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Philosophical Jargon
Words philosophical writers use to give the illusion of technical competence, including up-trippingly specialised senses of words that have other jobs during daylight hours.
akrasia, akrates, particularism, particularist, mereology, deontology, cognitivism, naturalism, anti-naturalism, ethics, phenomenology, metaethics and 220 more...
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gnosticism
catharism, mandaeism, manichaeism, sethians, thomasines, valentinians, basilidians, ophites, cainites, carpocratians, borborites, paulicianism and 19 more...
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academia
unfamiliar words encountered in academic articles
mereological, sophist, invidious, euphonic, epicycle, tendentious, inchoate, apposite, rapprochement, nomology, chronotope, monism and 28 more...
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Philosophical
Hegelianism, hylism, hylozoism, immaterialism, indeterminism, intuitionism, Kantianism, logicism, monism, nihilism, nominalism, objectivism and 44 more...
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sethbook's list
collapsitarian, disasterist, whoopla, frenzification, americanism, amurica, uhmurican, philaphobe, loverbuggery, egged, egg, kashnips and 13 more...
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Philosophy for beginners
Standard words and phrases used in philosophy
ontology, metaphysics, existentialism, logic, epistemology, aesthetics, pragmatism, phenomenology, idealism, empiricism, realism, nominalism and 24 more...
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Philosophy words
contingent, anomalous, monism, dualism, functionalism, epiphenomalism, indexical, deixis
Tweets
Looking for tweets for monism.
seanahan Wow, she died young. Also, should you be calling a 6 year old an idiot? Jul 17, 2009
sethbook Also a made-up word pertaining to idiotic sayings and pronunciations by a certain woman named Mona, 1988-1994. Jul 11, 2009