Friday, August 16, 2019

Monism, Pluralism, Quasi-Dualism

According to Monism, there is one Substance, and according to Dualism, there are two Substances.  But many systems that are classified as one or the other are, in fact, neither. Instead, they are typically constituted by a Substance and a quasi-Substance, in which the latter is partly dependent on, or inferior to, the former, but also partly independent of it, e. g. Spirit and Matter, and, so, the classification quasi-Dualism is apt.  Now, an apparent alternative to both Monism and Dualism is Pluralism, according to which there are multiple Substances.  Because of the focus on Epistemology, it is rarely recognized that modern Empiricism is Pluralistic, as the occasional characterization of it as Atomist signifies.  But, often underlying the apparent Pluralism of these systems is a quasi-Dualism that is merely the inverse of Rationalist quasi-Dualism.  For, in them, there is Unity, but typically only as nominal, and, furthermore, Multiplicity is presented as given, without any consideration as to a genesis of it.  In other words, such Pluralism is a quasi-Dualism that is derived from the same severing as Monism of an original One-and-Many concatenation, e. g. Emanation, as has been previously discussed.

No comments:

Post a Comment