This is typical of Plato's attitude towards life in his old age; and further, his metaphysical system of monistic idealism is the most remarkable approach to Hebrew monotheism which the Greek world made.
The Logos idea among the Jews was a modification of intuitive and naïve monotheism; among the Greeks it was a step upwards, demanded by reason, from polytheism to a monistic view of the universe.
This suggests that a strictly monistic epistemology, whether idealistic or realistic, does not get rid of the problem.
Of course, the monistic epistemologies have an advantage in the statement of the problem over the dualistic--they do not state it in terms which presuppose the impossibility of the solution.
Among the more lawful of their desires was a craving after a monistic conception of the universe.
In the cosmology of the Stoics we have the germ of a monistic and pantheistic conception of evolution.
The modern monistic doctrine, that all material things consist of sentient elements, and that consciousness arises through a combination of these, was a natural transformation of Leibnitz's theory.
Professor Small of Chicago: "With rare exceptions on each side, all philosophy to-day is monistic in its ontological presumptions; it is dualistic in its methodological procedures.
Philosophie, 454, shows as to Lotze's view that his assumption of monistic unity and continuity does not explain how change of condition in one thing should, as equalization or compensation, follow change of condition in another thing.
This view implies a monistic and idealistic conception of the world, together with an evolutionary idea as to its origin and progress.
Philosophy: "Dualism is yielding, in history and in the judgment-halls of reason, to a monistic philosophy.
Philosophy of Mind, 411--"Dualism must be dissolved in some ultimate monistic solution.
To the unity of enthusiasm corresponds the unity of the world, the monistic feeling.
In a non-monistic sense, the child, during this period, has no soul, and its life or death is of absolutely no moment to it.
Monistic ethics differ from those of any religious system, from the fact that the good of all is selected and digested into a code which looks toward the "greatest good to the greatest number.
Sidenote: Monism] The second great change made by Protestantism was more intellectual, that from a pluralistic to a monistic {747} standpoint.
But neither philosophic Buddhism nor Confucianism emphasized their monistic elements; they did not realize the importance to popular thought of monistic conceptions.
But Clifford was on firm monistic ground when he maintained that, unless the kinesis be similar, we have no grounds for inferring similarity of metakinesis.
It should be stated, however, that Professor Herbert seems to regard the monistic view I am advocating as committed to the absurdity indicated in the passage I have quoted.
According to the monistic hypothesis, kinesis and metakinesis are co-ordinate.
Such evolution is the inevitable monistic corollary from kinetic evolution.
And only on the monistic hypothesis, as it seems to me, is it admissible to believe in mental evolution,[KH] properly so called.
Indeed, he seems to have failed to see the full bearing of the monistic hypothesis; for while he combats it, he comes very near adopting it himself.
According to the hypothesis that is known as the monistic hypothesis, the so-called connection between the molecular changes in the brain and the concomitant states of consciousness is assumed to be identity.
The problem before us is to discover a basis for ethics on the Monistic hypothesis without the slightest acceptance of the facile solutions offered by Dualism.
And undoubtedly the Monistic principle might, by a shallow interpretation of it, be held to obliterate the distinction.
Hence the practical Dualism on the ethical and eschatological side which has found its way into Monistic thought.
And first, let us unreservedly admit that on the Monistic view the distinction between right and wrong, moral good and moral evil, is not fundamental.
From this unutterable mystery, to which we have no right to attribute either a monistic or a pluralistic character, we may, I suppose, imagine to emerge a perpetual torrent of duality.
That monistic tendency of human thought, which is itself a necessary projection of the monistic reality of the individual soul, cannot, except by an arbitrary act of faith, resolve this ultimate duality into unity.
Human language, at any rate, founded on the fact that these separate souls can communicate with one another, seems very reluctant to use any but monistic terms.
These facts of ontogenesis are the indestructible foundations upon which the monisticphilosophy of future times will erect its imperishable system.
The recognition of the theory of development and the monistic philosophy based upon it, forms the best criterion for the degree of man's mental development.
Just as this new monistic philosophy first opens up to us a true understanding of the real universe, so its application to practical human life must open up a new road towards moral perfection.
Nevertheless, I regard the monistic theory as in the last degree improbable.
This mystical germ wakes up in us on hearing the monistic utterances, acknowledges their authority, and assigns to intellectual considerations a secondary place.
It follows that whoever says that the whole world tells one story utters another of those monistic dogmas that a man believes at his risk.
Conclusion: We must oppose monistic dogmatism and follow empirical findings.
There is no doubt whatever that this ultra-monistic way of thinking means a great deal to many minds.
One is the monistic way, the mystical way of pure cosmic emotion.
If radically tender, you will take up with the more monistic form of religion: the pluralistic form, with its reliance on possibilities that are not necessities, will not seem to afford you security enough.
They would call it moralistic, and would apply the word religious to the monistic scheme alone.
Nevertheless there are possibly some radically monistic souls among you who are not content to leave the one and the many on a par.
Mystical states of mind in every degree are shown by history, usually tho not always, to make for the monistic view.
Taken thus abstractly as it first comes to one, the monistic insight is so vague as hardly to seem worth defending intellectually.
The paragon of all monistic systems is the Vedanta philosophy of Hindostan, and the paragon of Vedantist missionaries was the late Swami Vivekananda who visited our shores some years ago.
We all have some ear for this monistic music: it elevates and reassures.
He came to the same monistic conclusions that I reached thirty-six years ago.
Our monistic system has been charged with leading to pure naturalism; one of its most vehement critics, Frederick Paulsen, attaches so much importance to this stricture that he thinks it as dangerous as dogmatic clericalism.
In the latter book I also worked out the important conclusions that follow from this monisticreform of the theory of germinal layers for the phylogenetic natural classification of the animal kingdom.
They led him direct to monism and to an admiration of Spinoza's monistic pantheism.
The monistic principles which I developed there thirty-eight years ago have only been confirmed by my subsequent labors, and so I may refer the interested reader to that work.
If we sum up all that monistic science has taught us as to the origin and development of morality, we may put it in the following series of propositions: 1.
These acquisitions of the pathological anatomy and physiology of the phronema have a great philosophic interest, because they throw a good deal of light on the monistic conception of psychic life.
They serve as a solid foundation for the chief theses of our monistic biology; and they are inconsistent with the dualistic views of modern vitalists.
I base my monistic philosophy exclusively on the convictions which I have gained during fifty years' close and indefatigable study of nature and its harmonious working.
The phrase can be interpreted in a monistic sense, if we understand by it the sum of the forms of energy which are especially distinctive of the organism, particularly metabolism and heredity.
So he excludes all true and intelligent Christians, for they are not and can not be "monistic materialists.
And Mr. Haeckel would have us believe that a few "monistic materialists" are the only men entitled to a hearing upon the question of "Evolution.
He says "The immovable edifice of the true monistic science, or what is the same thing, natural science, can only arise through the most intimate interaction and mutual interpretation of philosophy and observation.
His words are, "It is only a select few, therefore, of learned and philosophical monistic materialists who are entitled to be heard on questions of the highest moment to every individual man, and to human society.
For some time there had been growing a need for an expression of evolutionary theory in terms other than those of Spencer, or of Haeckel- -the German monistic philosopher.
It cannot regard Evolution as merely the unrolling in time of the eternally complete, as in the view of monistic idealism.
This desirable progress will then however be possible only if the beaten paths of the traditional dogmas and of clerical superstition be abandoned and a rational monistic knowledge of nature attain the mastery instead.
Through public libraries, continuation schools, and popular monistic lectures will the more advanced be provided with mental nourishment.
In this universal monist association not only all free thinkers and all adherents of the monistic philosophy find place, but also free congregations, ethical societies, and free religious associations, etc.
In 1866 he developed the fundamental principles of his monistic philosophy in the two large volumes of his "General Morphology of Organisms.
The prevailing confessional or dogmatic religious instruction is to be replaced by comparative religious history and monistic ethics.
The monistic movement may be followed by the pamphlets of the society which may be obtained ordinarily from the Verlag Unesma, Leipzig.
The three ideals of this rational monistic religion are truth, virtue, and beauty.
In opposition to this monistic theory of knowledge is the prevailing dualistic conception of the world, that the most profound and important truths can be gained through supernatural or divine revelation.
This type of thought gradually developed into the monistic Vedanta as explained by S'ankara.
Next to this come certain treatises written in prose and verse called the Upani.sads, which contain various sorts of philosophical thoughts mostly monistic or singularistic but also some pluralistic and dualistic ones.
Or, "The recognition of the theory of development and the monistic philosophy based upon it forms the best criterion for the degree of man's mental development.
It is true that the opponents of evolution love to misrepresent the Monistic philosophy based on it as "Materialism," and confuse the philosophic tendency of this name with a wholly unconnected and despicable moral materialism.
It is true that this Monistic conception is rejected with horror by most men, and the Dualistic idea, which denies the inseparable connection of brain and mind, and regards body and soul as two totally different things, is still popular.
Darwinism arose like the dawn of a new day of clear Monistic science after the dark night of mystic dogmatism, and we can say now, proudly and gladly, that there is daylight in our field of inquiry.
For us the antithesis disappears in the Monistic philosophy, which knows neither matter without force nor force without matter.
The complete agreement in the structure and development of the psychic organs which we find between man and the highest mammals, and which can only be explained by their common origin, is of profound importance in the monistic psychology.
In the light of the Monistic philosophy the phenomena that we are wont to regard as the freest and most independent, the expressions of the human will, are subject just as much to rigid laws as any other natural phenomenon.
Both these truth-claiming hypotheses are non-dualistic in the old mind-and-matter sense; but the one is monistic and the other pluralistic as to the world process itself.
But doubtless dualistic humanists also exist, as well as non-dualistic ones of the monistic wing.
