Monism

case studies. The most fascinating portion is Chapter 7, “Sowing Doubts About Naturalist Methodology.” This chapter argues that the naturalist method does not always describe the entire picture of the social world. “Those who criticize methodology monism tend to subscribe to one of two possible positions. On the one hand are those who want to argue for methodology pluralism…The problem, however, is agreeing on the measure of ‘appropriateness’…At the other end of the spectrum, many postmodernists…

essential to balance these two together for the sake of a relationship with theology and to reason with as well for the sake of cultural context. Whereas too much attention on immanence may result in cultural captivity, such as theological liberalism, monism. Grentz…

In the free will vs. determinism debate, hard determinism seems to be a dominant belief. Hard determinism is the belief that free will and determinism are incompatible ideas, and that it is not possible to truly believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Under hard determinism, there is a view called hard incompatibilism which Smilansky subscribes to. Hard incompatibilism is the belief that determinism is incompatible with both human freedom and moral responsibility. Saul Smilansky…

any other thing to exist, except for God (Meditation III). Hence, existence of multiple finite substances are allowed. For example, a human can be thought to be a finite substance, with the modes of being four-limbed and etc. Spinoza, subscribing to monism, claims that thoughts and bodies are merely facets of God’s perfection; they are one of the infinite extensions and modes of the one true substance, because if anything exists outside of God, God cannot be said to be perfect for He would be…

Deflating queerness Before contesting the conceptual claim, it would be pertinent to clarify the types of value that are considered by Mackie tout court. Subsequently, the following criteria will be used as a guide by which to assess the plausibility of Mackie’s conceptual claim. The following represents what shall be referred to as the Mackiean moral value criterion (MMV) and includes the following options; MMV 1. MV is true of x, regardless of x’s desires, purpose, motivation and reasons…

principles. By making Berkeley idealism and solipsism the primary logical conventions in Tlön, he alludes to the possibility that the reality of modern science, and science in general, exists as a derivation of cerebral phenomena. Borges states that, “This monism or complete idealism invalidates all science” (Borges, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” 23), and alludes to this philosophy throughout the narration of Tlön. While both stories clearly show skepticism toward modern scientific principles,…

The reading one has chosen to critically analyse is Gilbert Ryle’s Descartes ' Myth. Ryle is attempting here to undermine what he dubs ‘The Official Doctrine’, which is the idea that the generally accepted answer to the mind-body problem is that of Cartesian Dualism, as presented by Descartes in the 17th Century. Ryle refers to the general acceptance as ‘The Dogma of The Ghost Machine’, as the Cartesian theory makes humans out to be just a ghost (mind) controlling a machine (body). Ryle’s main…

The works of Hesiod and Homer served as some of the earliest theories of cosmology and cosmogony. After Xenophanes of Colophon understood their interpretation of the kosmos, he rejects many of their ideas and asserts his claim that God is anthropomorphic and does not interfere with human life. In this paper, I will examine the differences between the views of Hesiod and Homer and those of Xenophanes. To begin, both Hesiod and Homer establish a cosmology and cosmogony centered around the idea…

Despite countering the idea that mind and body are two distinct substances with its theory of no deliberate mind and no deliberate self (Chan, 1963), Buddhism does not sit neatly with material monism. The belief in a ‘stream of consciousness’, life force (jivita) and heat (usman) reinforce the view that neither the physical nor the mental can be simply reduced to one another, nor can they be mutually separate (Lin, 2013). It would be difficult…

a god truly exists, because if so why is evil present in the world? Though this is a problem with Christian dualism because God is believed to be Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omni-powerful and Omnibenevolent, thus evil shouldn’t exist. However, with a monism humans would be a part of God, making the sins of humans the sins of God, yet that is impossible because taking out the dualistic aspect, does change how the body is viewed in the faith, but it doesn’t alter all other doctrines or ideals. There…