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.
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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
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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.
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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
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