Is there a name for my position?

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Reply Fri 21 May, 2010 02:03 pm
Aside from "moronic" is there a name for my thoughts on monism, dualism, etc.? I always know what I'm thinking, but I'm not always educated in the appropriate philosophical terms associated with those thoughts.

I would be tempted to call my position "weak dualism," but that's just something I made up.

Getting to the point, you probably want to know what my position is. I understand "monism" to mean that existence stems from one source - one essence, one being, whatever, and that what we see are only facets of this one source. "Dualism", on the other hand, supposes two sources - often stated as "good" and "evil." I would say that when most people speak of dualism, they mean a strong dualism where the two sources are equal and opposite. In my way of thinking, though, they are not equal.

I am usually not the first to come upon ideas like this, so I wondered if some ancient Greek statue has already had such thoughts and given them a name. If so, what?
 
jeeprs
 
Reply Sat 22 May, 2010 02:37 am
@Resha Caner,
It needs a lot more elaboration before it can be described, doesn't it? When you say 'existence stems from one source' this does not necessarily imply monism which is (strictly speaking) that there is only one real Being, or that reality is One, or something similar. Existence is obviously vastly manifold - there are uncountable billions of individual things, and the idea that they might have come from a common source is not really a monist position. I mean, modern cosmology posits that they all originated from the singularity which we suppose is what expanded via the Big Bang. I don't think that makes physical cosmology monist.

Also dualism might not only be the duality of good and evil. It might be the duality of spirit and matter, or some other pair of different fundamental categories.

---------- Post added 05-22-2010 at 06:38 PM ----------

Although I do like the idea - 'name my position' could become an excellent Philosophy Forum Parlour Game.
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Sat 22 May, 2010 06:02 am
@Resha Caner,
Resha Caner;167019 wrote:
Aside from "moronic" is there a name for my thoughts on monism, dualism, etc.? I always know what I'm thinking, but I'm not always educated in the appropriate philosophical terms associated with those thoughts.

I would be tempted to call my position "weak dualism," but that's just something I made up.

Getting to the point, you probably want to know what my position is. I understand "monism" to mean that existence stems from one source - one essence, one being, whatever, and that what we see are only facets of this one source. "Dualism", on the other hand, supposes two sources - often stated as "good" and "evil." I would say that when most people speak of dualism, they mean a strong dualism where the two sources are equal and opposite. In my way of thinking, though, they are not equal.

I am usually not the first to come upon ideas like this, so I wondered if some ancient Greek statue has already had such thoughts and given them a name. If so, what?


Monism, in philosophical lingo, usually is the metaphysical theory that there is only one substance. Dualism, that there are only two. Pluralism, that there are many. Monism has two versions. A. The one of the substances is mind (and then it is called, Idealism) or that one of the substances is matter (and then it is Materialism) Or, Neutral Monism, which is the theory that the only substance is some stuff that is neither mind nor matter.

Of course, as you suggest, the general notion can be extended to other areas:

Actually, the name that springs to mind for your general view is, Manichaeism.
 
Resha Caner
 
Reply Sun 23 May, 2010 03:05 pm
@jeeprs,
jeeprs;167212 wrote:
It needs a lot more elaboration before it can be described, doesn't it? When you say 'existence stems from one source' this does not necessarily imply monism which is (strictly speaking) that there is only one real Being, or that reality is One, or something similar. Existence is obviously vastly manifold - there are uncountable billions of individual things, and the idea that they might have come from a common source is not really a monist position. I mean, modern cosmology posits that they all originated from the singularity which we suppose is what expanded via the Big Bang. I don't think that makes physical cosmology monist.

Also dualism might not only be the duality of good and evil. It might be the duality of spirit and matter, or some other pair of different fundamental categories.


Thanks for the clarification.

jeeprs;167212 wrote:
Although I do like the idea - 'name my position' could become an excellent Philosophy Forum Parlour Game.


:bigsmile:
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Sun 23 May, 2010 03:10 pm
@Resha Caner,
Resha Caner;167773 wrote:
Thanks for the clarification.



:bigsmile:


It might also be appropriate to call it "Taoism" with its duality of Ying and Yang.
 
Resha Caner
 
Reply Sun 23 May, 2010 03:12 pm
@kennethamy,
kennethamy;167246 wrote:
Actually, the name that springs to mind for your general view is, Manichaeism.


Ouch! If I'm coming across as gnostic (edit: or Taoist), I definitely need to find a better way to express myself. Thanks for the help. You've given me a place to start and I'll see what I can dig up.
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Sun 23 May, 2010 03:17 pm
@Resha Caner,
Resha Caner;167776 wrote:
Ouch! If I'm coming across as gnostic (edit: or Taoist), I definitely need to find a better way to express myself. Thanks for the help. You've given me a place to start and I'll see what I can dig up.


Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
 
Diogenes phil
 
Reply Thu 3 Jun, 2010 11:05 pm
@Resha Caner,
I would just call it "confused." Because that's my expression half the time I'm reading these threads.
 
 

 
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