Philosophical concept of a most basic substance, or supreme being
For other senses of "monad", see
Monad
.
The term
monad
(from
Ancient Greek
μον??
(monas)
'unity', and
μ?νο?
(monos)
'alone')
[1]
is used in some
cosmic philosophy
and
cosmogony
to refer to a most basic or original substance. As originally conceived by the
Pythagoreans
, the Monad is the
Supreme Being
,
divinity
or the totality of all things. According to some philosophers of the
early modern period
, most notably
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
, there are infinite monads, which are the basic and immaterial
elementary particles
, or
simplest units
, that make up the universe.
[2]
Historical background
[
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]
According to
Hippolytus
, the worldview was inspired by the
Pythagoreans
, who called the first thing that came into existence the "monad", which begat (bore) the
dyad
(from the Greek word for two), which begat the
numbers
, which begat the
point
, begetting
lines
or
finiteness
, etc.
[3]
It meant
divinity
, the first being, or the totality of all beings, referring in
cosmogony
(creation theories) variously to source acting alone and/or an indivisible origin and
equivalent comparators
.
[4]
Pythagorean
and
Neoplatonic
philosophers like
Plotinus
and
Porphyry
condemned Gnosticism (see
Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
) for its treatment of the monad.
In his
Latin
treaty
Maximae theologiae
,
Alan of Lille
affirms "God is an intelligible
sphere
, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." The French philosopher
Rabelais
ascribed this proposition to
Hermes Trismegistus
.
[5]
The symbolism is a free
exegesis
related to the
Christian
Trinity
.
[5]
Alan of Lille mentions the
Trismegistus
'
Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers
where it says a Monad can uniquely beget another Monad in which more followers of this religion saw the come to being of God the Son from God the Father, both by way of generation or by way of creation.
[5]
This statement is also shared by the
pagan
author of the
Asclepius
[5]
which sometimes has been identified with Trismegistus.
The
Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers
completes the scheme adding that the ardor of the second Monad to the first Monad would be the
Holy Ghost
.
[5]
It closes a physical circle in a logical triangle (with a
retroaction
).
The
Euclidean
symbolism
of the centered sphere also concerns the
secular
debate on the existence of a
center of the universe
.
The idea of the monad is also reflected in the
demiurge
, or the belief of one supreme being that brought about the
creation of the universe
.
Pythagorean concept
[
edit
]
For the Pythagoreans, the generation of number series was related to objects of
geometry
as well as
cosmogony
.
[6]
According to
Diogenes Laertius
, from the monad evolved the
dyad
; from it numbers; from numbers, points; then lines, two-dimensional
entities
, three-dimensional entities, bodies, culminating in
the four elements
earth, water, fire and air, from which the rest of our world is built up.
[7]
[a]
Modern philosophy
[
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]
The term monad was adopted from
Greek philosophy
by
modern philosophers
Giordano Bruno
,
Anne Conway
,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
(
Monadology
),
John Dee
(
The Hieroglyphic Monad
), and others. The concept of the monad as a universal substance is also used by
Theosophists
as a synonym for the
Sanskrit
term "
svabhavat
";
the Mahatma Letters
make frequent use of the term.
[9]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
This Pythagorean cosmogony is in some sense similar to a brief passage found in the
Daoist
Laozi
: "From the Dao comes one, from one comes two, from two comes three, and from three comes the
ten thousand things
".
[8]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Oxford English Dictionary"
.
www.oed.com
. Oxford University Press
. Retrieved
17 August
2022
.
- ^
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von (2005).
Discourse on metaphysics, and the monadology
. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.
ISBN
978-0486443102
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Diogenes Laertius
,
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
.
- ^
Fairbanks, Arthur, Ed., "The First Philosophers of Greece". K. Paul, Trench, Trubner. London, 1898, p. 145.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Gilson, Etienne
(February 15, 2019). "From Scotus Eriugena to Saint Bernard".
History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages
. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press. p. 174,809.
ISBN
9780813231952
.
OCLC
1080547285
.
- ^
Sandywell, p. 205.
The generation of the series of number is to the Pythagoreans, in other words, both the generation of the objects of geometry and also cosmogony. Since things equal numbers, the first unit, in generating the number series, is generating also the physical universe. (KR: 256) From this perspective 'the monad' or 'One' was readily identified with the
divine
origin of reality.
- ^
Diogenes Laertius
,
Lives of Eminent Philosophers.
- ^
(道生一、一生二、二生三、三生萬物。)
Dao De Jing
, Chapter 42
- ^
Barker, A. Trevor.
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett
.
ISBN
1-55700-086-7
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Hemenway, Priya.
Divine Proportion: Phi In Art, Nature, and Science
. Sterling Publishing Company Inc., 2005, p. 56.
ISBN
1-4027-3522-7
- Sandywell, Barry.
Presocratic Reflexivity: The Construction of Philosophical Discourse C. 600-450 BC.
Routledge, 1996.
External links
[
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]