Material Monism

Short description: Belief that the universe can be reduced to physical essence

Material monism is a Pre-Socratic belief which provides an explanation of the physical world by saying that all of the world's objects are composed of a single element.

Among the material monists were the three Milesian philosophers: Thales, who believed that everything was composed of water; Anaximander, who believed it was apeiron; and Anaximenes, who believed it was air.^[1] Although their theories were primitive, these philosophers were the first to give an explanation of the physical world without referencing the supernatural; this opened the way for much of modern science (and philosophy), which has the same goal of explaining the world without dependence on the supernatural.^[2]

Notes

↑ Curd, Patricia, A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia (Hackett Publishing, 1996), pp. 9, 11 & 14.
↑ Lindberg, David C., The Beginnings of Western Science (University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 28–9.

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[1] Curd, Patricia, A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia (Hackett Publishing, 1996), pp. 9, 11 & 14.

[2] Lindberg, David C., The Beginnings of Western Science (University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 28–9.

Material Monism

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