MONISM AND

HUMAN NATURE
PHILOSOPHY
 MONISM
WHAT IS MONISM?

• Monism attributes oneness or singleness to a concept.

• Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that all is
one, that there are no fundamental divisions, and that a
unified set of laws underlie all of nature.
• Monistic philosophical belief in materialism states that only
what is physical is real
• It is based on the concept of the monad (derived from the
Greek “monos” means “single” and “without division”).
• The term “monism” itself is relatively recent, first used by the 18th century German
philosopher Christian von Wolff (1679-1754) to designate types of philosophical
thought in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind.
• Other Proponents: Aristotle, St.Thomas Aquinas

BASIC TYPES OF MONISM

1. Idealistic – holds that the mind is all exists (mental thoughts and ideas).
Proponent: Pre-socratic, Neoplatonists, Gottfried Leibniz, George Berkeley
2. Materialism - only physical matter exist / only physical is real.
Proponent: Thomas Hobbes, Bertrand Russell
WHAT IS HUMAN NATURE?
• Human nature is a bundle of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and
acting which humans are said to have naturally.
• Human nature is the sum total of our species identity, the mental, physical and spiritual
characteristics that make humans uniquely.
• Human Nature can refer both to how individual human capacities are acquired and to
general claims about human capacites.

Proponent : Aristotle, Plato and Socrates

• Socrates was a rationalist and believed that the best life and life most suited to human
nature involved reasoning.
• For the Socratics, human nature and all natures, are metaphysical concepts.
• Nature as an idea or form of a human.