Monistic idealism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monistic Idealism is a metaphysical theory that states that consciousness [not matter] is the ground of all being. It is a monistic theory because it holds that there is only one type of thing in the universe, and a form of idealism because it holds that one thing to be consciousness. In India the theory is known as Vedanta. Amit Goswami wrote a book about this theory in 1993, The Self-Aware Universe.
Monistic idealism rejects any notion of consciousness being an "accident" or the mere side product of material interactions. Instead, consciousness comes before matter; it is the fundamental wellspring from which reality is created. In the words of physicist Amit Goswami:
The current worldview has it that everything is made of matter, and everything can be reduced to the elementary particles of matter, the basic constituents - building blocks - of matter. And cause arises from the interactions of these basic building blocks or elementary particles; elementary particles make atoms, atoms make molecules, molecules make cells, and cells make brain. But all the way, the ultimate cause is always the interactions between the elementary particles. This is the belief - all cause moves from the elementary particles. This is what we call "upward causation." So in this view, what human beings - you and I think of as our free will does not really exist. It is only an epiphenomenon or secondary phenomenon, secondary to the causal power of matter. And any causal power that we seem to be able to exert on matter is just an illusion. This is the current paradigm.
Now, the opposite view is that everything starts with consciousness. That is, consciousness is the ground of all being. In this view, consciousness imposes "downward causation." In other words, our free will is real. When we act in the world we really are acting with causal power. This view does not deny that matter also has causal potency - it does not deny that there is causal power from elementary particles upward, so there is upward causation - but in addition it insists that there is also downward causation. It shows up in our creativity and acts of free will, or when we make moral decisions. In those occasions we are actually witnessing downward causation by consciousness.
[edit] References
- Bossche F.V.D. 1997. 'Jain Arguments Against Vedanta Monistic Idealism: A translation of the Parabrahmotthpanasthala of Bhuvanasundara Sri'. Journal of Indian Philosophy. Vol 25, No. 4:337-374.
- Calkins, Mary Whiton. 1919. 'The New Rationalism and Objective Idealism'. The Philosophical Review, Vol. 28, No. 6: 598-605.[1]
- Dieke, Ikenna. 1992. 'Toward a Monistic Idealism: The Thematics of Alice Walker's the Temple of My Familiar'. African American Review, Vol. 26, No. 3: 507-514.
- Goswami, Amit, with R.E. Reed and M. Goswami. 1993. The Self-Aware Universe: How consciousness creates the material world. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Books.
- Goswami, Amit. 2001. 'Physics within Nondual Consciousness'.
Philosophy East and West, Vol. 51, No. 4: 535-544.
