*Any* compositions of monads is a monad. On Tuesday, May 7, 2013 7:15:27 AM UTC-4, yanniru wrote: > > Monads within composite monads. How can you discuss Leibniz without > mention of composite monads > > In addition, Indras Pearls were known before the time of Leibniz > > > On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 7:09 AM, Roger Clough <rcl...@verizon.net<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> Monads within monads within monads-- matter, strings and atomic structure >> >> >> >> First I'm going to have to take you, searchlight in hand, through >> the darkest, most difficult topic in Leibniz's philosophy, which >> is difficult for beginners, especially if they're materialists. >> The dark passageway is what Leibniz means by "substance" >> and "monad". Leibniz sometimes refers to substance as if it >> were a description of a physical object, but these both only >> apply to mental entities. >> >> Leibniz developed his idealistic theory of monads before anything was known >> >> >> about atomic physics, so, although being aware of the possibility from the >> >> >> ancient Greeks, he did not include atoms specifically in his theory. >> Instead, he used Aristotle's concept of substance, but allowed it to >> be continually changing. In place of physical atoms, he based his philosophy >> >> on the corresponding mental quantity, the monad. >> Without going into great detail, Leibniz used an atom of mind, >> the monad, >> >> Leibniz began by asking, in the tradition of Descartes, if there might >> be any >> fundamental quantity, anything certain, on which he could base his >> philosophy. >> He found that everything in spacetime could be divided an infinite >> number of >> times, so that the fundamental quantity must not be physical. Today we >> know that >> there may be a size limit, the atom or fundamental particles, but one >> cannot >> isolate these, due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. Here I use >> isolatability instead of infinite divisibility to dismiss anything >> physical >> (anything in spacetime) as being fundamental. That includes space and >> time, which are infinitely divisible. Also, there are arguments >> by others such as Paul Davis that matter is not fundamental. >> >> Next then we ask whether mind has fundamental units >> on which to build a philosophy. If you recall the double aspect >> theory of mind, you can see that parts of the brain, while >> not being fundamental, possess fundamental functions, >> such as units of memory, or visual or sensory motor functions. >> So it appears that mind, a mental substance, can be divided up >> into fundamental or logical wholes or concepts. >> Leibniz then used these units of mind or monads as the >> fundamental "mental atoms" of existence. >> >> A monad then is a complete concept, a whole. a simple substance >> of one part. A monad may and probably does have variations within, >> but it is a whole, constantly changing entity >> which, being so, does not have a >> boundary within, as long as we assess the whole as a single function. >> Thus man as a monad contains a brain as a monad which contains >> neurons as monads. Note that, although each of these monads >> is physically within the others, the monads are to be classed >> as functions within functions, and may not be directly related to >> the physical monads. >> >> A piece of matter would mentally consist of a monad for the whole, >> inside of which (here both mentally and physically) are a huge >> number of monads for the atoms. Then if we look further, we >> might have within the atom monad, monads for its subparticles >> such as electrons, protons and neutrons. Similary each >> atom is made up of strings. I would suspect that the various modes >> of vibration would be further monads inside the basic atom >> monad. Higher frequency strings inside lower frequency strings. >> >> If we look at this abstractly, as on a spreadsheet, we see that >> the universe can be characterized topically, as monads within >> monads, depending on how finely we focus our vision. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Dr. Roger Clough NIST (ret.) 5/7/2013 >> See my Leibniz site at >> http://team.academia.edu/RogerClough >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to everyth...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> > >
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