Monism and Dualism

Different philosophical doctrines on the origin of the world. Monism claims that there is only one unified origin for the complex phenomena in the world. Monism includes materialist monism and idealist monism. Dualism denies the unity of the world and regards matter and consciousness as two different origins which are independent of each other and exist simultaneously.

The word monism originated from the Greek word mónos, meaning single, one and only. C. Wolff (1679–1754), a modern German philosopher, was the first to use this term in a philosophical sense. Materialist monism and idealist monism both acknowledge that the world has a unified origin, but on the question whether the basis for the unification of the world is matter or spirit and which one is primary they are fundamentally opposite. Materialist monism holds that matter is the origin of the world, that matter is primary and consciousness is secondary, and that matter determines consciousness. In the history of Western philosophy from Thales to Feuerbach, many materialist philosophers are materialist monists. Idealist monism holds that the origin of the world is spirit, that all things and phenomena are unified on the basis of spirit, and that matter is the manifestation and derivative of the spirit. Many idealist philosophers from Plato to Hegel are idealist monists.

The word dualism originated from the Latin word dualis, meaning “two”, it was first used by Thomas Hyde (1639–1703) in his book The History of the Religion of Ancient Persia (1700), referring to the opposition between good and evil in Zoroastrianism. Wolff was the first to use this term to refer to the opposition between spirit and matter.

Dualism holds that the world has two origins, rather than one; one is spirit, and the other is matter. Dualism holds that spirit and matter are different in nature, parallel and incommensurable. Descartes’ philosophy is a representative of such a view. Dualism absolutized the opposition between consciousness and matter, regards spiritual phenomena as if they had always existed, just like matter; in answering the first side of the basic question of philosophy, it denied the primacy of matter and the secondary nature of consciousness, and in viewing the parts played by matter and spirit, it considered spirit as active, dynamic and matter as passive, reactive. Therefore, if an “ultimate origin” is to be identified among the two origins, dualism will eventually revert to idealism.

Marxism upholds consistent materialist monism and holds that the real unity of the world lies in its materiality. As the origin of the world, matter includes all concrete forms of matter, and cannot be resolved into a certain form or a certain level of it. The unity of the world is a unity on the basis of objective reality, the unity of the diverse.

The Marxist principle of the material unity of the world is the crystallization of the long-term development of human knowledge. Engels said: “The real unity of the world consists in its materiality, and this is proved not by a few juggled phrases, but by a long and wearisome development of philosophy and natural science.” The material world is constantly developing, and man’s knowledge of the material unity of the world is also constantly developing and deepening. The proof of the material unity of the world is a long-term continuous process. With the development of human practice and science, the philosophical arguments for the material unity of the world are bound to take on new contents and new forms.