The Baha'i Studies Listserv I just added the following to my Unities Model<http://unities.bahaifaith.info/> book:
Non-dualism, by the way, should not be mistaken for monism (and vice-versa). Unfortunately, some sources, such as the commonly used Wikipedia®, confuse these terms: Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic. Monisms may be theologically syncretic by proposing that there is one God who has many manifestations in the diverse religious traditions. "Monism<http://wwww.bahaistudies.net/asma/monism-wiki.pdf>," Wikipedia. San Francisco. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved on January 22, 2012. Monism and non-dualism address different metaphysical or ontological questions. While a non-dualist contends that reality is an undivided whole, a monist argues that the separate beings and things of existence emanate from a single source or share the same substance. For example, Christian Trinitarianism is monist. It is not non-dualist. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are separate persons (an expansion of dualism to threefold pluralism) composed of a single divine substance (monism). Plotinus was a monist, but Wilber is a non-dualist: ... Plotinus taught that the One is the highest reality. The One is the source of everything in existence and remains separate from all that has emanated from it .... The general scholarly consensus ... is that monism best describes Plotinus's conception of reality: the cosmos is a unified whole that emanates from a single source, the One.... Wilber doesn't believe that the cosmos consists of wholes and parts. Instead, there are only holons, wholes that are parts of other wholes. So each whole is simultaneously a part, a whole/part, a holon. This contention supports Wilber's theory that reality is nondual .... Wilber ... says that there are no individual entities anywhere in the cosmos. Brian Hines, What Wilber gets wrong about Plotinus<http://hinessight.blogs.com/files/wilber-and-plotinus-article2.pdf>. Retrieved on January 22, 2012. --- Mark A. Foster, Ph.D., sociology of religion, theory, and clinical sociology Portal: www.markfoster.net<http://www.markfoster.net> * Critical realism: www.structurization.com<http://www.structurization.com> Two books: www.bahaifaith.info<http://www.bahaifaith.info> * Clinical: www.fosterservices.com<http://www.fosterservices.com> ________________________________ The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-629411-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
