Monism and Dualism: Philosophy Forums

Philosophy Forums » General Philosophy » Monism and Dualism » Monism and Dualism

Page: 1 2

Monism and Dualism

cosscos
Graduate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Dec 11, 2008

Total Topics: 3
Total Posts: 172

Posted 06/17/09 - 03:39 AM: Subject: Monism and Dualism	#1
I like to share my personal understanding with you on difference between monism and dualism. I like to make sure myself whether I correctly comprehend of those or not. Monism is the idea that matter will come up with form, in other words, body incubates mind or man creates god, thing has innate form such as spirit in thing-self. Freut is monist because he claimed that physical body in every day life creates transformed images of its substance, or his dreams in every night. Marx is monist as well, because he claimed that labor, means of product along with product relation creates its substance, or history and world. Dualism is, however, the idea that form will nest on the body, in other words, mind has its own place other than body, so, when physical body is dead, mind will fly away from the body, or God create man, thing has its own substance as same as spirit has its own substance. Descartes is dualist, because he claimed that pineal gland in the brain is the place in which spirit will sit. I need your comments.

mayor of simpleton
CAT v. DOGMA

Usergroup: Sponsors
Joined: Feb 20, 2009
Location: Vienna, Austria

Total Topics: 18
Total Posts: 683

Posted 06/17/09 - 06:34 AM:	#2
Monism n. Philosophy. 1. 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. 2. The doctrine that mind and matter are formed from, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being. monist mo'nist n. monistic mo·nis'tic (mō-nĭs'tĭk, mŏ-) adj. monistically mo·nis'ti·cal·ly adv. Dualism n. 1. The condition of being double; duality. 2. Philosophy. The view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter. 3. Psychology. The view that the mind and body function separately, without interchange. 4. Theology. a) The concept that the world is ruled by the antagonistic forces of good and evil. b) The concept that humans have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual. dualist du'al·ist n. dualistic du'al·is'tic adj. dualistically du'al·is'ti·cal·ly adv. Reference: www.about.com Not that this is much help, but perhaps a starting point. Meow! GREG
I am not one to attribute that which I cannot understand immediately to be god(s)-perhaps I will never understand, but god(s) are not defined by my lack of understanding-this is the foundation of dogmas, the pressing of connotative values into the realm of dennotative meaning. - MOS Jerry Sings! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYJERcdHb0 Yeah WHATEVER! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz7_3n7xyDg Mayor of Simpleton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Da9sc6YDBo Atheism is a unique "-ism" in that it's followers are not bound by a common belief, but rather a common disbelief. - MOS

Cadrache
Tenured Poster

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Dec 09, 2006
Location: AB, Canada

Total Topics: 106
Total Posts: 2822

Posted 06/17/09 - 03:36 PM:	#3
Too bad all dualists are monists. Note I'm not stating duelist.
Words the wiser become the name you do not know. - Some guy with a surname Blanchard. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

mway
Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 07, 2009

Total Topics: 14
Total Posts: 546

Posted 06/17/09 - 04:00 PM:	#4
Monism vs Dualism = Science vs Religion.
Lame is to Wav, as the Brain is to Reality.

180 Proof
kynic

Usergroup: Sponsors
Joined: Apr 27, 2003
Location: NOTHINGlifeNOTHING.

Total Topics: 89
Total Posts: 5400

Posted 06/17/09 - 08:00 PM:	#5
mway wrote: Monism vs Dualism = Science vs Religion.
The question isn't "What do I believe?" but rather "What do I least disbelieve?" Absence of necessary evidence is evidence of necessary absence. [What cannot be done?[What cannot be hoped?[What cannot be known?]]]

cosscos
Graduate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Dec 11, 2008

Total Topics: 3
Total Posts: 172

Posted 06/17/09 - 09:31 PM:	#6
I agree with you in some points, Mway. Scientists such as Richard Dawkins is hostile to monotheistic christianity. He claimed that atheism era will come up soon or later, followed by contemporary monotheism era and ancient pantheism era. I heard that Einstein was a pantheist.

mway
Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 07, 2009

Total Topics: 14
Total Posts: 546

Posted 06/17/09 - 10:11 PM:	#7
Dualism is a religious stand point. Sure there may be something other then the physical, but this has an infinite number of possibilities, and until they can be narrowed down, i'll stick with Occam's Razor and Monism.
Lame is to Wav, as the Brain is to Reality.

Go_
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Nov 24, 2005

Total Topics: 2
Total Posts: 93

Posted 06/17/09 - 11:45 PM:	#8
How is it possible that we might learn of the existence of something non-physical? If spirit (or anything like it exists and can be knowable) then spirit, too, like non-spirit, is something physical. At present, there seems to be no reason to believe in spirit (or anything like it). Today there are only physical things that we know about and other things that, perhaps, are yet-to-be-known or that, perhaps, will never be known. But just because some things might exist that are yet-to-be-known or that will never be known isn't even a tiny reason to believe in the existence of non-physical things. Non-physical is not a default classification for the unknown or the yet-to-be-known. The non-physical is non-sense literally.

cosscos
Graduate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Dec 11, 2008

Total Topics: 3
Total Posts: 172

Posted 06/18/09 - 02:27 AM:	#9
I agree with you, Go, to some extent. Electricity, for instance, is invisable like spirit, but It is certainly a physical thing. So, If God were to be electricity, then we would bring Him up in our body regardless of using a flash of lightening whenever we are existentially in danger in terms of Monism.

Rob
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 16, 2007

Total Topics: 2
Total Posts: 22

Posted 06/18/09 - 06:04 AM:	#10
Cadrache ... Cosscos- I think you all have the wrong idea. If everything was simply physical, why would Edward Witten turn to membrane theory? How do physical events explain the initial existence of substance in our universe, or even how the temporal beginning of our universe came into existence? Here is my thought chain: I will assign 'awareness' to the quality of humans that people typically believe separates them from machines and rocks. One might think that a robot that smiles after certain events does not really experience satisfaction but is programmed to smile after specific stimuli as a result of a deterministic chain of events. The robot does not ever feel anything whereas one can imagine that when a human is hurt, he feels pain; when a human teaches an idea, he knows it; etc. I will call this property awareness. I do not believe that any of you are 100% sure that you experience awareness or not, and the same goes for the question, can our lives have any end-all value to us? There are two possibilities: either our lives can have some sort of value to us or they cannot. I am not sure which choice is right. If our lives cannot have overall value to us, then there is no point in living, and it doesn't even matter that I am considering this because it does not change the fact that my life cannot have any value. So, I turn to the choice that my life could have value for the possibility that it could. From there, from the same process I would have to conclude that we can know that our lives have value, what we do can affect the value of our lives, we can know how to affect the value of our lives, etc. -- and awareness. To all of you materialists, how does any number of billiard balls interact to become self-aware? And so I believe in the physical and non-physical, I believe that human awareness is non-physical, and I am a dualist

Page: 1 2

Sorry, you don't have permission to post. Log in, or register if you haven't yet.