Monism Essay

865 Words2 Pages

There are three main perspectives of metaphysics in philosophy, which “examine the nature of reality”, defined in Friedenberg and Silverman (2015). This studies the issue of mind-body, asking questions, such as, “What is the mind? Is it physical? Does the body necessarily need a mind?” As well as “What is consciousness? Does it exist in everything? “The mind-body problem addresses how physiological or mental properties are related to physical properties”.
Monism is a concept believed by Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE), in which everything is one, including reality. According to Turner (2016) lecture notes, this belief then is separated into four categories; physical, idealist, neutral, and panpsychism theories of monism. Physical monism, proposed by …show more content…

The operations of the mind are simply seen as the operations of the brain, it is a single substance, in which is” responsible for generating and controlling bodily and mental states”. Without the brain, we are dead. Idealism is a belief, in which everything is a product of one higher mind. This contrasts to physicalism, as ideas or thoughts are unified to be controlled by God. Mastin (2008) noted that “the real things are mental entities, not physical material, which only exist in the sense that they are perceived”. Neutral monism, by William James (1842-1910) and Bertrand Russel (1872-1970) believed that the ultimate reality can be perceived as either physical/mental. There is not much care for which property it is, therefore only focuses on that it is only one thing. (Thales, 624-545 BCE) viewed panpsychism, as the fact that “everything exhibits at least some quality of consciousness, but ultimately, is one pool (substrate) of consciousness”. Everything, including non-living objects have its own element of individual consciousness. Dualism is a belief that “both mental and physical realms are possible, but

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