Monad (Greek philosophy)

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For the number one, see 1 (number).
Representation of the Pythagorean monad.
Representation of the Pythagorean monad.[1]

Monad (from Greek μονάς monas, "unit"; monos, "alone"),[2] according to the Pythagoreans, was a term for God or the first being, or the totality of all beings. Monad being the source or the One meaning without division.

For the Pythagoreans, the generation of number series was related to objects of geometry as well as cosmogony.[3] According to Diogenes Laertius, from the monad evolved the dyad; from it numbers; from numbers, points; then lines, two-dimensional entities, three-dimensional entities, bodies, culminating in the four elements earth, water, fire and air, from which the rest of our world is built up.[4]

The term monad was later adopted from Greek philosophy by Giordano Bruno, Leibniz, and others.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hemenway, p. 56.
  2. ^ Compact Oxford English Dictionary.
  3. ^ Sandywell, p. 205. The generation of the number-series is to the Pythagoreans, in other words, both the generation of the objects of geometry and also cosmogony. Since things equal numbers, the first unit, in generating the number series, is generating also the physical universe. (KR: 256) From this perspective ‘the monad’ or ‘One’ was readily identified with the divine origin of reality.
  4. ^ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers.

[edit] Sources

  • Hemenway, Priya. Divine Proportion: Phi In Art, Nature, and Science. Sterling Publishing Company Inc., 2005, p. 56. ISBN 1-4027-3522-7
  • Sandywell, Barry. Presocratic Reflexivity: The Construction of Philosophical Discourse C. 600-450 BC. Routledge, 1996.