Monism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that ultimate reality is entirely of one substance. There are three main types of monism: materialistic monism, which reduces everything to matter; idealistic monism, which regards matter as a manifestation of mind; and mind-stuff theory, which views matter and mind as aspects of the same underlying substance. Pluralism, in contrast, is the theory that reality is composed of many parts and that no single explanation can account for all aspects of life. It acknowledges diversity and the right of individuals to determine values. Prominent early pluralists included Empedocles and Anaxagoras.

1. Chapter 11
Philosophy of Man

2. MONISM
 Greek monos, “single”
 In philosophy, it is a doctrine that ultimate reality is entirely of
one substance
 Opposed to both Dualism and Pluralism
 Three Basic Types of Monism
1. Materialistic Monism
2. Idealistic Monism
3. Mind-Stuff Theory
 Although monistic philosophies date from ancient Greece, the
term monism is comparatively recent
 It was first used by the 18th-century German philosopher
Christian von Wolff to designate types of philosophical thought
in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of
body and mind
 Although he was not known by the term, the 17th-century Dutch
philosopher Baruch Spinoza was one of the most influential
monists
 He taught that both material and spiritual phenomena are
attributes of one underlying substance
 His doctrine strongly anticipated the mind-stuff theory. See
Materialism
mathematician, born in Breslau (now Wrocław,
Poland), and educated at the University of
Jena
In 1706 he became professor of mathematics
and natural philosophy at the University of
Halle
His rationalist doctrines gradually came into
sharp conflict with the religious views of some
of his faculty colleagues
In 1721 he delivered a lecture in which he cited
the moral axioms of Confucius as proof that
human reason could attain moral truth by its
own efforts
MONAD
A symbol referred by Greek
philosophers as the “The First”,
The Seed” , “The Essence”, “The
Builders”, and “The Foundation”
It is a metaphysical and
theological view that “all is one”
essence, principle, substance or
energy, and that there is one,
universal, unified set of laws
underlying nature

3. MATERIALISTIC MONISM
 Extreme or absolute
materialism
 According to this doctrine,
everything in the universe,
including mental
phenomena, is reduced to
the one category of matter
 It also says that matter is the
ultimate reality, and the
phenomenon of
consciousness is explained
by physiochemical changes
in the nervous system
PIANO EXIST
CONSCIOUSNESS
X

4. IDEALISTIC MONISM
 In this second doctrine, matter is regarded as a
form of manifestation of mind
 The monists, agreeing that only one basic
substance exists, differ in their descriptions of its
principal characteristics
 THUS:
 In idealistic monism the substance is
believed to be purely mental
 In materialistic monism it is held to be purely
physical
 In neutral monism it is considered neither
exclusively mental nor solely physical
 The idealistic position was held by the Irish
philosopher George Berkeley
 The materialistic by the English philosopher
Thomas Hobbes
 The neutral by the Dutch philosopher Baruch
Spinoza. The latter expounded a pantheistic view
of reality in which the universe is identical with
God and everything contains God's substance
PIANO EXIST I
PERCEIVE IT
CONSCIOUSNESS

5. GEORGE BERKELEY
 An Irish philosopher who
was considered the
founder of Idealism, the
philosophical view that all
physical objects are
dependent on the mind for
their existence
 According to his early
18th-century writings, an
object such as a table
exists only if a mind is
perceiving it
 Hence, objects are ideas
The philosophical belief that
material things do not exist
independently but only as
constructions in the mind

6. MIND-STUFF MONISM
According this theory,
as expounded by the
British metaphysician
W. K. Clifford, in his
Elements of Dynamic
(1879-87), matter and
mind are
consubstantial, each
being merely an
aspect of the other
PIANO EXIST I
PERCEIVE IT
AND I CAN
TOUCH IT

7. FAMOUS PROPONENT OF MONISM
 A German biologist and
philosopher, who, through books
and lectures, popularized Charles
Darwin's work in the German-
speaking world
 He became the first energetic
champion of Darwinian theory in
German
 He attempted to use evolution to
construct a unifying theory of
biology, science in general, and
even religion
 According to him, each animal
retraces, during its embryological
development, the evolutionary
 Paul Carus
 Pythagoras
 Heraclitus
 Parmenides
ERNST HAECKEL
Other
Proponents

8. PHILOSOPHY OF MONISM
It holds that there is one substance, that there is only one kind of
thing and there are many different individual things or being in
this category
There is only one mind that is real, that both the mental and the
physical can be reduced to some sort of substance, or energy
It also holds that only the physical is real, and that the mental can
be reduced to the physical
The universe is part of God but there is a plurality of souls and
substance within this supreme being, in short there is no real
distinction between God and the universe

9. DUALISM PHILOSOPHY
The theory that the universe
is explicable only as a whole
composed of two distinct
and mutually irreducible
elements
In Platonic philosophy the
ultimate dualism is between
“being” and “nonbeing”—
that is, between ideas and
matter
In the 17th century, dualism
took the form of belief in two
fundamental substances:
mind and matter
HENRI BERGSON
•French philosopher and Nobel
laureate, who advanced a theory of
evolution, based on the spiritual
dimension of human life, that had
widespread influence in a variety of
disciplines
•Emphasizing intuition as a means
of attaining knowledge, French
philosopher Henri Bergson
attempted to reconcile scientific
theories of evolution with
Famous Proponent

10. PLURALISM PHILOSOPHY
Theory that reality is composed of many
parts and that no single explanation or
view of reality can account for all
aspects of life
It also refers to the acceptance of many
groups in society or many schools of
thought in an intellectual or cultural
discipline
It acknowledges the diversity of interest
The philosophical theory that reality is
made up of many kinds of being or
substance
 Stressed the
importance of mutual
respect and tolerance
 Implies the right of
individuals to
determine values and
truth
 Advocates the belief
that more than one
religion can teach
truths
 Human fallibility limits
all religious knowledge
 Believes in interfaith
dialogue between
embers of different
Basic Tenets

11. FAMOUST PLURALISTS
 Empedocles (490?-430
BC), Greek philosopher,
statesman, and poet, born
in Agrigentum (now
Agrigento), Sicily
 He was a disciple of the
Greek philosophers
Pythagoras and
Parmenides
 According to tradition, he
refused to accept the
crown offered to him by
the people of Agrigentum
after he had aided in
overthrowing the ruling
oligarchy. Instead he
instituted a democracy
 He asserted that all things
are composed of four
 (500?-428BC) Greek philosopher
who introduced the notion of nous
(Greek, “mind” or “reason”) into
the philosophy of origins; previous
philosophers had studied the
elements (earth, air, fire, water) as
ultimate reality
 Born in Clazomenae (near modern
Izmir, Turkey) he was the first
philosopher to settle (circa 480) in
Athens, later a flourishing center of
philosophy
 His pupils included the Greek
statesman Pericles, the Greek
dramatist Euripides, and probably
Socrates
 He had taught in Athens for about
EMPEDOCLES ANAXAGORAS

12. QUIZ JANUARY 27, 2010
1. A symbol referred by Greek philosophers as the “The
First”, The Seed” , “The Essence”, “The Builders”, and
“The Foundation”
2. According to him, each animal retraces, during its
embryological development, the evolutionary steps that
led to its place in the natural order
3. According to this doctrine, everything in the universe,
including mental phenomena, is reduced to the one
category of matter
4. He advanced a theory of evolution, based on the
spiritual dimension of human life
5. In this doctrine, matter is regarded as a form of
manifestation of mind
6. According to this philosophy, “Human fallibility limits all
religious knowledge”
7. Base on this theory, matter and mind are
consubstantial, each being merely an aspect of the
1. Monad
2. Ernst Haeckel
3. Materialistic
Monism
4. Henri Bergson
5. Idealistic Monism
6. Pluralism
7. Mind-Stuff
Theory
8. Monism
9. George Berkeley
10. Idealism

13. QUESTIONS
1. What is monism? What is pluralism?
Compare the philosophical concepts of
the two theories or doctrines with regards
to the nature of man
2. Monism stressed that moral law is
autonomous while Christian law states
that moral law emanates from God. Which
of these two doctrines do you believe?
Support your answer
3. What is the influence of monism in the
present or modern philosophical system?
Cite the influences
4. Pluralism acknowledges the diversity of