Abstract
Each of the papers in this section focuses in different ways on monism—the view that ontologically speaking there is only one thing or one kind of thing—and its significance for a particular model of “God.” The term “God” is being used here generically and does not, for example, refer necessarily to a theistic God, meaning God conceived of as a “person” and as ontologically distinct from or transcendent to creation. Each of the authors argues a case for the religious and practical significance of the monistic views they present. The central question then is whether and in what ways monism is religiously significant.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Owen (1971, p. 72).
- 2.
- 3.
Toland (1976) (reprint 1751), pp. 32-33.
- 4.
See Pataki (2007).
- 5.
See Levine (1994), section 2.3.
- 6.
Smith 1925–1926, pp. 7–8. Smith quotes William James, Pragmatism: “I suspect … that in but few of you has this problem occasioned sleepless nights … I myself have come, by long brooding over it, to consider it the most central of all philosophical problems … I mean by this that if you know whether a man is a decided monist or a decided pluralist, you perhaps know more about the rest of his opinions that if you give him any other name ending in ist.”
- 7.
Hamlyn (1984, p. 38).
- 8.
Lovejoy (1960, pp. 12–13).
- 9.
My thanks to Jeanine Diller for comments and revisions.
References
Hamlyn, D.W. 1984. Metaphysics. London: Cambridge University Press.
Levine, Michael. 1994. Pantheism: A non-theistic concept of deity. London: Routledge, London.
Lipner, J.J. 1984. The world as God’s ’Body’: In pursuit of dialogue with Ramanuja. Religious Studies 20: 145–161.
Lipner, J.J. 1985. Ramanuja: The face of truth. London: Macmillan.
Lovejoy, Arthur. 1960. The great chain of being. New York: Harper & Row.
Owen, H.P. 1971. Concepts of deity. London: Macmillan
Pataki, Tamas. 2007. Against religion. Melbourne: Scribe.
Smith, J.A. 1925–1926. The issue between monism and pluralism. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 26: 1–24.
Toland, John. 1976. Repr. of the 1751 ed. Pantheisticon. New York: Garland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Levine, M. (2013). Introduction to Ultimate Unity. In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_47
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_47
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5218-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5219-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)